Virus
by GW-Imp
Summary: A strange subtance is causing Wufei to go through some...changes...YES! Stick a fork in it people, it is DONE!
1. The Infection

You asked for it and here it is! I hope you guys like it. It's a little slow in the beginning but it gets better.

_Dedicated to Shadow of a Rose _

Virus

By GW-Imp

1. The Infection

          Wufei Chang whipped out his Gundam's retractable dragon arm violently, trying to destroy the enemy mobile suit attacking him. He landed a direct hit and the enemy mobile suit exploded before his very eyes. A voice that he usually found incredibly annoying screamed a welcome warning through his intercom.

          "Wufei, behind you!" Wufei spun his Gundam quickly and attacked. The coward's mobile suit was sent flying off course. He watched as the Gundam of the person who had warned him sliced the enemy mobile suit in half with its jet-black scythe.

          "Well you're welcome." Duo said after finishing off the enemy. Wufei fired a myriad of bullets towards Duo's Gundam. Duo veered out of the way just as Wufei had expected. The bullets shredded the Leo that had snuck up behind Duo.

          "And now _you're welcome." Wufei smirked. A new voice wafted through the intercom._

          "Everyone keep your eyes open; we're drifting into an asteroid belt." Wufei smiled, thinking to himself, '_That's got to be the most I've ever heard Heero say.' Wufei was thrown forward as a particularly large asteroid collided with his Gundam. If not for his restraints, he would have flown right out of the cockpit. Wufei struggled to get clear of the free-wheeling rocks but there were too many._

          "I need some help over here!" Wufei snarled through the intercom. Wufei was jolted backward as another mini comet sliced through Nataku's main thrusters. He swore under his breath and began flipping switches on the control panel in an effort to reroute the energy of the main thrusters to the secondary ones. A large shadow filled the cockpit. Wufei glanced up to see an asteroid headed straight for him. He hit the eject button but the ejector was jammed.

          "This is gonna be bad." Wufei mumbled to himself as he braced for impact. The asteroid made contact, piercing the hull and shattering the front sensory screen through which Wufei steered Nataku and directed its weapons. The whole cockpit began to shake wildly and Wufei became sure that he was going to get whiplash. The asteroid split in two and the halves scraped past the Gundam. But even after the asteroid was no longer blocking his view, Wufei still couldn't see out of the cockpit. He stared hard at the side sensory screens and realized that there was some sort of thick residue spread over the outside of the cockpit. As he was wondering what it was, it slowly started to disappear. Wufei figured that the forward momentum of his Gundam was pushing it backwards. When the substance had almost completely gone, Wufei could see that the front wall was cracked and dented severely and on the verge of being sucked into space. Wufei tried to reach out to his partners via the intercom.

          "My hull is damaged and losing integrity fast!" he reported.

          "How long do you think it'll hold?" Heero asked.

          "From the way it looks, I would say about two to three minutes."

          "Don't worry, Wufei!" A different voice cried. The picture on Wufei's intercom vid-screen changed from that of a messy-haired Japanese boy to that of a blonde Arabian. "I'm really close to you. I can help you out!"

          "Well I'm not going anywhere. My main thrusters are down and I haven't been able to reroute the power." Wufei sat anxiously awaiting Quatre's arrival. His foot began to feel cold. He glanced at it but could see nothing due to the lack of light. He bounced in his chair as yet another asteroid rammed into Nataku. He watched the cracks in the cockpit's walls spread further. Wufei was wondering what was keeping Quatre when he noticed the cold had moved into more of his leg. '_Why am I cold? Isn't this stupid suit insolated?' He considered the possibility of his space suit having been torn. If it __had been torn, that meant he was losing both heat and oxygen._

          "Quatre, would you hurry up?! I think I've got a leak in my suit." Wufei barked.

          "I'm closing in on your position right now." Quatre assured him. Now Wufei's waist was cold, but his leg wasn't. It was as if the cold was _moving along his body. He glanced down at himself once more before remembering that his helmet had flashlights on it. The right one was busted but the left one was still in tact and he clicked it on. He wasn't positive, but he thought that he saw something slide around his waist to his back. A loud rumbling sound caused him to jerk his head up. The screen and wall in front of him were trembling from the mounting pressure. He saw Sandrock clearing away asteroid debris and moving in his direction. A chill ran up Wufei's spine, not from fear, but from something else._

          "It's about t – AAAH!" A sickening splat sounded as thick, dark green slime slammed into the visor of Wufei's helmet. It slid up to the corners of Wufei's visor. Wufei tried desperately to scrape it off with his hands, but nothing even came off on his gloves. He watched in horror as the goop oozed around the visor and into his suit. Soon all of the disgusting fluid was inside of the suit and numbing Wufei's entire body. Not thinking about the consequences, Wufei started to unfasten his helmet.

          "Wufei, don't take off your helmet!" Quatre cried. "You won't be able to breathe!" But Wufei already couldn't breathe. He could feel the substance engulfing his body and it had reached his throat. He clutched at his neck in vain, not being able to get at the foreign material because of the space suit that was _supposed to be protecting him. He gasped for air, his mouth wide open. The freezing liquid climbed up his chin and jutted out, rising to his eyes. With a shrill screech it dove into his mouth. Wufei screamed – _

          He tossed about in the bed, writhing in fear. His friends rushed to his side to calm him.

          "Wufei, calm down! Calm down, you're okay now! We're back on Earth!" Quatre told him. Wufei ceased his violent thrashing and screaming. He blinked, trying to recognize his surroundings. He was in his room back at the safehouse. He frowned in pain; for some reason the light was hurting his eyes. Badly.

          "What happened?" he demanded, sitting up.

          "Your Gundam was hit by an asteroid, remember? We think that may have been what knocked you unconscious. I was able to get you out of the asteroid belt before you got seriously hurt, but I can't say the same for your Gundam." Quatre informed him.

          "What about that…_stuff?"_

          "What stuff?"

          "That…_stuff. It got inside of my suit."_

          "We checked your suit because you said you thought it had a leak, but we didn't find anything strange inside of it. We didn't find any leaks, either."

          "It got in through my helmet. Did you check my helmet?"

          "Yes, but there wasn't anything inside of it either. Are you sure that something got into your suit?"

          "No." was what he said, but he thought, '_But I'm sure I feel sick.' "Toilet…" he mumbled. His co-pilots exchanged glances._

          "I'm not helpin' him use the bathroom." Duo stated matter-of-factly.

          "I think I'm gonna - ." Wufei leaned over and emptied his stomach before he could finish the sentence. Unfortunately, Quatre didn't have much time to move.

          "Great." he grumbled, exiting the room to try to clean himself off. After throwing up, Wufei felt better so he decided to ask more about what had happened.

          "Did we win?" he inquired. Heero and Trowa simply nodded while Duo let out a loud whoop. "Good." Wufei said with a satisfied nod. "So how badly was Nataku damaged?"

          "You probably won't be able to use it for a while." Duo told him, being pretty much the resident mechanic. "The main thrusters weren't just damaged, they were sliced clean off! Those'll have to be replaced. The front of the cockpit went right after you blacked out, so that'll have to be welded closed or something. Your ejector is jammed, the hull is full of holes and the dragon arm is clogged with space rocks. Other than that, it's holding up." Wufei frowned again upon hearing this. '_It could've been worse.' he reminded himself. He noticed the other pilots staring at him as he was drifting into his own thoughts._

          "What?" he demanded sharply.

          "You're not gonna say anything about injustice?" Duo asked in disbelief.

          "Oh…uh, sure…injustice. Whatever." he said and returned to his thoughts. Normally Wufei would have been more worried about his Gundam than anything else but at that moment he was more interested in figuring out whether or not that strange substance had been real – and if it had, what it had done to him. Wufei found himself losing focus as he got deeper into his thoughts. He was feeling…pain. His head was throbbing. He groaned and closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb.

          "You okay, Wu-man?" Duo asked carefully, not wanting to be snapped at again.

          "My head…it's the light…" Wufei moaned. Heero seemed to know what was wrong with Wufei.

          "Light can be painful after a blow to the head." he said with no noticeable feeling.

          "Oh." Duo said.

          "I want to be alone right now." Wufei told the others, still massaging his head. "Turn the light off when you leave." The three boys stood and left Wufei to his thoughts and musings. Wufei laid back down on his bed, the brief moment of normalcy gone, and wondered what exactly had happened to him out in space. Then after a while, he got up to meditate on the floor of his room, but could only light a few of the candles. A wave of fear passed over him as he remembered how the substance he'd seen seemed to be afraid of the light coming from his flashlight. '_Am I afraid of light?' he wondered, hoping the answer was no._

*Hope you liked it! Please, no flames. And that means _you, Gelfling!* ^_~_


	2. Symptoms

Okay, here's the next chapter! I wanted at least five reviews but oh well. I'd like to state that this is written as though the show was originally in English so each pilot has their own individual language such as Japanese, Chinese, etc. If you have a problem with Wufei speaking Chinese, don't read this chapter. -_-

Virus

Continued

2. Symptoms

          Wufei found it rather difficult to lift his eyelids when he awoke the next morning. He was still extremely tired but it just seemed that his eyelids were stuck together. He forced his eyes to open then closed them immediately afterwards. The sunlight pouring in through his window was just too much. Groaning, he rolled onto his stomach _then opened his eyes. That was a bit easier to handle and his eyes soon adjusted to the light. Wufei barely noticed that he was on the floor of his room. His whole mind was clouded; he didn't even remember sitting down on the carpet to meditate in the first place. Glancing around, he saw several of his candles still burning. So he had just fallen asleep while he was meditating. Upon examining himself, he saw that he was wearing the same clothes he'd had on the previous day instead of his pajamas. He snorted, illustrating that he couldn't care less. He struggled to his feet, his balance wavering dangerously, and stumbled sleepily to the bathroom just down the hall from his quarters. Gazing into the mirror when he got into the bathroom, he jumped in shock at what he saw. His body was drenched in cold sweat and his hair was splayed haphazardly about his head, almost none of it pulled back into its usual tight ponytail. His skin was so pale that it looked as though he wasn't even alive. There were dark rings under his eyes and the irises of his eyes, which usually appeared to be black, were now a rather light brown. At least they were light brown to him because he was so used to them being dark, but they were still dark enough to be considered black from a short distance. He only noticed that they were lighter because he was leaning oddly close to the mirror. Realizing this, he backed away from the mirror and sink and closed his mouth which he had been holding open, not from shock, but for air. He had been panting unconsciously but now he was breathing through his nose again. He glanced down at his toothbrush in its holder. The thought to use it never crossed his mind. Nor did the idea of using the soap or shaving cream or any of the other items of hygiene occur to him. He wasn't like this at all; he believed remaining clean was very important. But his mind wasn't functioning correctly just then so instead of getting cleaned up, he turned to leave the bathroom – and walked straight into the wall. His eyes squeezed shut in anger as he cursed himself in Chinese. As he turned once again, this time maneuvering carefully __around the wall, he saw Duo leaning against the wall of the hallway, grinning stupidly._

          "How long were you standing there, Maxwell?" Wufei demanded. The words came out slow and a bit slurred.

          "Long enough, Wu-man, long enough." Duo snickered. Wufei pushed past him and headed towards the stairs leading into the living room. "Don't run into any more walls on your way down!" Duo called after him. Though Duo meant that statement to be a joke, it proved to be good advice that Wufei should have heeded. He actually _did run into several other walls before reaching the kitchen. He dragged himself to the round wooden table in the center of the kitchen and dropped himself into one of the stiff wooden chairs. Unbeknownst to him, he had begun to pant through his mouth again. His eyelids closed and opened slowly and a low moan escaped his throat. Three other pilots were sitting at the table already and they stopped eating to stare at Wufei. Quatre dared to ask a question as Wufei slumped over onto the table._

          "Should I even _ask if you're alright?" he said._

          "I'm fine…" Wufei mumbled in response. Quatre watched clear saliva spread across the table he'd just had re-polished. It was of course coming from Wufei. Quatre wiped the tiny amount of crumbs from his face with a napkin, folded the napkin neatly, stood and walked over to Wufei. There he tilted Wufei's head back, wiped up the saliva then set Wufei's head back down on the table, this time ensuring that his mouth was closed. Next he turned to Heero and Trowa and stated,

          "We need to take him to the hospital."

***

          "Unhand me, you weaklings! I am _not sick!" Wufei growled angrily as he was carried into the nearest hospital. He fought against the grips of his friends weakly, but it was enough to slow them down quite a bit. They literally dragged him into the waiting room and wrestled him into a chair. Trowa and Heero held him down while Quatre went to sign him in and take care of the bill. Duo stood in front of the disgruntled Wufei and teased him. Wufei was annoyed to say the least and he faked a sneeze in Duo's direction. Duo shrieked and jumped away, brushing away the imaginary germs frantically. Wufei chuckled lightly then sneezed for real. Up at the front desk, Quatre was having some problems with the receptionist._

          "I'm sorry, but we don't treat people for colds." The plump, red-cheeked woman informed him.

          "But I just _told you that he doesn't __have a cold!"_

          "All the symptoms you've just described to me suggest that he _does."_

          "Listen, he's delirious, he's been walking into walls, he can't talk right - ."

          "I'm sorry. Just go buy him some cough syrup."

          "Oh come on - !" Just then Wufei, somehow having escaped from Trowa and Heero, bolted past Quatre and the receptionist, screaming in Chinese with the two pilots right on his heels. There was a loud thud as Trowa and Heero tackled him and a cry of injustice. This was followed by a chorus of disgusted moans and groans as Wufei upchucked once again. The receptionist pushed a clipboard into Quatre's hands.

          "Fill this out and a doctor will be with you shortly."

***

          Wufei lay fuming in the sterile, white hospital bed. He was strapped down because he'd been fighting the doctor and nurses the whole time they had been trying to help him, so he couldn't do practically anything. Though he had been given pain killers, his head was pounding from the intense light created by the florescent ceiling fixture. The blindingly white walls didn't help at all. It was also too warm in the room and Wufei had complained about all of these things numerous times, but no one had done anything about them. Wufei cursed the other pilots for doing this to him.

          "As soon as I get out of here…I will kill them. I will murder them all. Each and every one of them. One by one, I will take their lives. Yes, my katana will sing happily as it tears through their bodies and tastes their blood. I will have justice…they will pay…" Wufei continued on in this manner, a smile creeping across his face. Outside of his room, the doctor was talking to the other four pilots.

          "We're not exactly sure what's wrong with your friend," the doctor was saying. "But we think he may have been infected with something."

          "Something like what?" Quatre asked.

          "Well, his deliriousness suggests a common pathogen, but his low body temperature suggests…an _uncommon pathogen."_

          "Excuse me?"

          "It's rather difficult to explain. Your friend's body temperature seems to be dropping, but not quickly or even dangerously, at this point. However, a normal microorganism will usually cause the infected body's temperature to rise. Almost all of his other symptoms say that he's infected with, well, small bacteria, but there are the _other symptoms which say he's infected with a virus, possibly even some sort of poison."_

          "Do you mean he's infected with a poison _or a virus or a poison __and a virus?" Duo inquired._

          "A poison _or a virus. But I haven't said he was infected by anything yet. As I was saying, he's got a runny nose, sore throat and a headache just like any person with a common cold. However, he doesn't have a fever, he's delirious and his brain function is slowing severely, unlike any person with a common cold. We've never seen anything like this before, but it doesn't seem to be anything serious. As far as we can tell, it's not even contagious. In my professional opinion, it's probably just an irregular form of the flu."_

          "Will he have to stay here long?" Quatre asked.

          "No. Fortunately, he's not so bad off that he can't go home – in fact, he seems to actually have gotten a bit better since he's been here. I'm a little worried about his brain, though. If he starts to act strangely I want you all to bring him directly back here. Listen to every word he says. Watch every move he makes. Don't let anything slip by you. We don't know exactly what we're dealing with here so we're as much in the dark about it as you, but we can't underestimate whatever it is. It may be nothing but then it may be something we never forget."

***

          Wufei stalked silently through the shadowed hallway. His breaths came out weak and raspy and he was sweating profusely. He reached an open door and stopped. Peering cautiously inside, he spotted two sleeping boys on their beds. He paused to scrutinize their motionless forms for a moment, trying to detect whether or not they were actually asleep. Duo most likely _was asleep, but one could never really tell with Heero. He did not intend to carry out his threat from earlier. Right now he was on a much more important errand. Heero turned in his sleep. Wufei held his breath and kept still. After another few minutes of careful observation, Wufei decided that both of the sleeping pilots __were asleep and slipped past the open door. He crept like a mouse down the stairs, into the kitchen and to the refrigerator. Squinting to shut out the blinding light of the refrigerator, he reached in and wrapped his pale fingers around the ice cold jug holding the treasure he had gone on this quest for._

          "_Water…" he rasped then emptied the entire gallon of the clear liquid down his throat, not spilling a single drop. He smiled as the cold fluid spread through his body. It seemed to give him strength. '__I must have been dehydrated.' Wufei concluded. He wondered why he hadn't gotten a massive headache. Usually drinking something that cold and that fast would have given him a brain freeze. He shrugged it off and reached for the second jug of water that was supposed to be the emergency reserve. He downed that too then crushed both plastic jugs and tossed them into the garbage. He paused for a moment, listening to his surroundings, then he sighed and said,_

          "Can't I have _any privacy in this place?!" He swiveled around angrily to stare into the now widened Prussian blue eyes that had been watching him. "What, did you think I wouldn't notice you standing there, Yui? With you breathing so loudly of __course I was going to find you." Wufei stormed out of the kitchen and back to his room. Heero stepped out from his hiding place. '__How could he have found me?' he wondered. '__I couldn't even hear myself breathing, so how could he? __But why was he drinking all that water anyway?'_

*So what's the deal with Wufei? He's acting very peculiar…well, read the next chapter to find out! I hope I get at least five reviews by then. O_o*


	3. Changing the Dragon

Well alright! I'm glad you people like this! It gets better, believe me. I'd like to clear something up, though. As usual, this is strictly a non-romantic fic – as I have told my friends, "Romance gets in the way of the horror". True, ne? So there isn't a relationship between Wufei and Quatre but there are certain parts that could be considered hints at that. Okay, enjoy! 

Virus

Continued

3. Changing the Dragon

          Again Wufei had to struggle to open his eyes but this time he could have sworn he saw something slide sideways out of his field of vision when he did. He checked either side of himself and saw no one but he was sure he had seen _something move. Blinking in confusion, he saw it again – two large dark objects sliding away to the sides. He jumped up and spun around and around but there wasn't anything moving in the room but him. After waving his hand dismissively he exited his room. It took him a good deal of time to find the bathroom even though it was just two doors down and the hallway was straight. When he reached it, he stared into the mirror just as he had done the previous morning. His eyes widened in horror as he caught sight of them, waking him up from his daze immediately. He slammed the door shut and locked it, making sure that nobody – namely Duo – was in the bathroom with him and that nobody could get in. His eyes now appeared to be hazel-orange. This was __extremely noticeable, even from a long way away. A million thoughts and questions raced through Wufei's mind. He knew at that moment that there was __definitely something wrong with him. He fell back against the towel rack, wheezing noisily, never taking his eyes off of his reflection. The sound of someone knocking at the door made him jump. Quatre's voice floated into the tiny room._

          "Is anybody in there?" Quatre was silent a moment then he tried the door knob. Finding it locked, he knocked again. Wufei couldn't find his voice. He was still too shocked from his discovery. '_Don't panic,' he told himself. '__Panicking is for weak little children. Get a hold of yourself.'_

          "Uh…go away! I'm using the bathroom!" Wufei yelled at the door.

          "Wufei? Geez, I thought nobody was in there. Why do you have the light off?" Wufei looked up at the light switch. The light _was off. The whole time he had thought it was on._

          "I-it's none of your business! Go away!"

          "Is everything okay in there? Are you feeling sick again?"

          "No! Now leave me alone, you _baka weakling!" With a heavy sigh, Quatre walked away from the bathroom, leaving Wufei to come up with a solution to his problem. Wufei decided that he would put on a pair of old sunglasses he had. Wearing those, the others wouldn't be able to tell the color of his eyes and as an added bonus, light wouldn't be able to get into his eyes quite as much. The others would consider it strange of course but they would think him having orange eyes was even stranger. He opened the door carefully and peered around the wall in the direction of his room. Taking a quick glance in the opposite direction to make sure he wasn't being watched, he stole silently across the carpeted floor to his room and began his search for his sunglasses. His fingers closed around them as he tore apart a drawer and he snatched them out and hurriedly placed them on his face. Breathing a small sigh of relief, Wufei turned to go down to the kitchen. Just then Duo, who felt like a good chase but not like doing anything sneaky, hopped in front of Wufei._

          "Look at this, Wufei!!" he cried, thrusting a very explicit picture into Wufei's face. 

          "KISAMA!!" Wufei screamed, grabbing his nose. He reached for his katana to teach Duo a lesson but stopped when he noticed the way Duo was staring at him. "What?!" he demanded. Duo's arms fell to his sides as if he was in a trance.

          "Your nose…"he said.

          "Yes I know it's bleeding, thanks to _you!"_

          "No, your blood…" Wufei pulled his hand from his nose and looked down at it. It was covered in blood, but the blood was dark. _Very dark. In fact, it was so dark that it looked black. Duo backed away from Wufei, shaking his head._

          "Oh man, you need to be in a hospital." he mumbled.

          "No! I'm not going back there! Don't tell _anybody about this!" Duo shook his head a few more times then bolted from the room. Wufei gave chase and tackled Duo just as he reached the stairs. He slapped a hand over Duo's mouth so he couldn't call for help. Duo fought for his freedom but managed only to knock Wufei's sunglasses off and flip himself onto his back. Wufei glared angrily at him and when Duo discovered the change of Wufei's eye color he struggled even harder to get free._

          "Stop it!" Wufei hissed at him. "You will not tell _anybody about this. If you do, I won't just cut off your braid, I'll cut off your head! Is that understood?!" Duo nodded and Wufei released him. Duo strolled nonchalantly down the stairs and Wufei pivoted around to go back into his room. He tensed in fury as a cry rang out downstairs._

          "WUFEI'S GOT BLACK BLOOD!!!" It was very clearly Duo's voice. '_I will enjoy killing him.' Wufei thought bitterly. He heard Quatre's muffled voice followed by the sound of feet approaching rapidly. Not wanting to be tackled by Heero and Trowa again, Wufei tore down the hallway to Quatre's room. They wouldn't think to look for him there. He listened intently as the footsteps moved in his direction then stopped. They had reached Wufei's room. Wufei ducked into Quatre's closet and closed the door. He wondered why he was hiding like a little weakling but he found the dark, closed-in space to be rather comforting. He stopped listening to Heero and Trowa's footsteps as he snuggled in amongst Quatre's clothes and other miscellaneous belongings. He didn't even notice the content smile creeping across his face nor did he notice the footsteps creeping closer to his hiding place. He came back to reality with a start as the closet door was yanked open. Without thinking about it, Wufei __hissed at Heero who was responsible for opening the closet. He was dragged violently from the closet and taken to one of Quatre's many cars._

***

          "Well, we've run several diagnostic tests on your friend, and we still haven't determined what's affecting him. However, we _have discovered a symptom that we missed yesterday." The same doctor that had treated Wufei the previous day had examined him again today._

          "Yeah, so did we." Duo murmured, referring to Wufei's blood.

          "What did _you discover?" Quatre asked the doctor._

          "His DNA is mutating."

          "WHAT!?!" all five of the pilots cried at once. Wufei had heard the doctor's statement through the door.

          "Um, he's not talking about _you, Wufei." Quatre called._

          "I'm not stupid! I heard what he said!" Wufei shouted back. Quatre sighed and turned back to the doctor.

          "How can his DNA be…_mutating?" he asked._

          "That leads me to our other discovery. Very tiny microorganisms are finding ways into his cells and even getting into his nuclei. We know that they're causing his DNA to mutate, but we're not sure how they're doing it."

          "Do you know what the mutations are going to do to him?"

          "Unfortunately, we lack the knowledge to predict what the results of the mutations will be."

          "Can you tell us why his blood is…that color?"

          "We doubt that the color change of his blood is a mutation. We believe that it's simply the result of the presence of the organism."

          "What about his eyes?"

          "That is definitely a mutation."

          "How will this affect his mind? Will he still be able to talk and do other things like that?"

          "We're not sure how it will affect his mind. We know that his brain cells are not exempt from the organism and that it _was slowing down his brain activity, but now we don't know what it's doing to him."_

          "Is this…permanent? Can you treat it?"

          "We…_might be able to come up with some method of treatment, but it seems a bit unlikely. After all, the world has never encountered an organism small enough get inside the nucleus of a cell, let alone its chromosomes. Do you have any idea where this organism might have come from?" The four pilots that were talking to the doctor tensed at this question._

          "Uh…thanks for all your help! We'd like to talk to Wufei now!" Quatre blurted, herding the doctor away from Wufei's hospital room while the other three pilots snuck inside of it. After the doctor was well away, Quatre came back and slipped inside also, locking the door behind him.

          "We've got to get him out of here." Quatre told them.

*** _   _

          The diagnostic tests the hospital had run on Wufei had literally taken hours so by this time it was already well after noon. At approximately 3 o' clock that afternoon, the four normal and healthy pilots attempted to sneak Wufei out of the hospital through the window in his room. Wufei didn't fight his friends this time – he was glad to be leaving the hospital. He would've struggled against them with all his strength if he had known where they were taking him, though. It had been unanimously decided that Wufei should be taken to Dr. J. Taking Wufei to another public hospital would only further jeopardize their security and Dr. J had access to more advanced equipment anyway. 

          Wufei squirmed uncomfortably in his seat as the car bumped along the road. He had been doing that for the entire ride and it was starting to annoy Heero.

          "Stop squirming!" he growled. Wufei said nothing in response. He just continued to writhe and wiggle, making occasional pained grunts. Duo turned around in his seat.

          "What's _his problem?" he asked Heero, not really expecting an answer. Just then the car entered a tunnel. Wufei quieted down and stopped moving. Duo stared at him and he stared back at Duo. Then the tunnel ended and Wufei jerked back as if trying to avoid something. It took everything Heero and Trowa had in them to hold Wufei as he crammed himself back against his seat, curling his legs beneath his body protectively. Duo watched Wufei with mild amusement as he tried to escape his invisible enemy. He was shocked when Wufei hissed at something on the floor of the car. He glanced down but saw nothing._

          "What?" he asked Wufei. "What are you hissing at?" It took a moment for Wufei to answer the question as though he couldn't process the words and remember how to respond.

          "I…I hissed at…nothing. I don't hiss." he said finally.

          "Alright, then what are you afraid of?"

          "I am…afraid of nothing."

          "So then why are you all bunched up on the seat?" Wufei's gaze once again traveled to the floor of the car. Duo heard him whisper something in Chinese. Trowa's only visible eye turned downward. A somewhat disturbed expression formed on his face.

          "Hey, what did he say, Trowa?"

          "…The sun…" Trowa mumbled.

***

          There isn't much to be said about what happened when the pilots reached Dr. J's laboratory. The situation was explained quickly and Wufei was put through more testing. By the time it was all completed, however, it was nearly 10 o' clock at night. Wufei had had an episode earlier and had destroyed all of the lights in one section of the lab. He now sat in the corner of that particular area, glaring at his fellow pilots and Dr. J to make sure they didn't approach him. As he was staring at them, he began to salivate. He'd never noticed how hungry he was before. He hadn't eaten in two days but that was no reason for him to be considering eating another human. The hunger gnawed wolfishly at his insides but he only hugged his knees close to his body and continued to glare at his friends.

          "I don't know what to tell you about your friend," Dr. J was saying. "But it's very clear that he has been affected by some alien organism that's trying to pass itself off as a virus. A virus will enter an organism and consume everything it can, which is what this thing is doing. Or at least, it _was doing that. Now, it's replacing what it took with…__other things. It seems that this "virus" has no intention of leaving your friend's body. I'm not sure but I believe that it's trying to enhance Wufei to meet its living requirements. If it succeeds, it won't ever need to leave his body which will further its chance of survival. I just don't see why this is affecting his mind so greatly."_

          "So can you do anything to get rid of the virus?" Quatre asked hopefully.

          "It will take some time, but I may be able to create some antibiotics to combat the organism. However, I will need a sample of the specimen." All the attention in the lab turned to Wufei. Wufei remained silent and kept glaring at them. He ran his fingers over the blade of his katana without breaking eye contact. No one was leaping at the chance to try to get some of Wufei's blood, which was the only place the virus was residing. Dr. J pulled a small gun from his lab coat and handed it to Heero.

          "This gun has tranquilizers in it." he told Heero. "You know what to do." Heero took aim without hesitation. He pulled the trigger and the dart flew through the air. Wufei's hand moved in a blur and easily seized the tranquilizer in mid-air. Everyone gasped at this. Wufei flicked the dart carelessly to the side. Heero fired the gun again. This time Wufei deflected the dart with his katana. Frustrated, Heero pulled the trigger again and again but nothing came out. Dr. J cleared his throat.

          "There were only two darts in it." he said. Heero scowled at Wufei who smirked at his failure. The other four pilots and Dr. J tried everything they could think of to get a sample of Wufei's blood. They begged and pleaded, they tried to take it by force, they tried putting tranquilizers in food, they tried putting tranquilizers in water, they tried putting tranquilizers in food _and water, but absolutely nothing worked. When the clock displayed 12:00pm, they gave up, locked Wufei in an observation room and went to sleep right there in the lab. They had to sleep in another room so they took turns guarding Wufei. Quatre kindly offered to take the first watch. _

          Later that night, an Earth shattering crash yanked Heero from his sleep. His stomach sank, laden with suspicion and worry. His suspicions were confirmed as he and the others got up and ran into the room where Wufei was being kept. There was a trail of broken shards of glass leading from the window of Wufei's observation room to the door of the lab. They moved hesitantly towards the broken window and peered into the observation room. Quatre lay unconscious on the floor, even more glass strewn about him and a small puddle of blood mixed in. The door to the lab was open, but it was squeaking softly. Heero figured that Wufei had just left it open since he had obviously 'stepped out'. Leaving the others to help Quatre, Heero crossed the room to the still squeaking door to shut it. He had to exit the lab to get to the door because it was open all the way, so he couldn't even see it before he was outside. But when he _did get outside of the lab, his jaw dropped. The heavy steel door was bent severely and was lying on the floor, having been ripped from its hinges. The squeaking was the door toggling to and fro against the wall, being balanced only on two of its corners. It finally lost the wavering balance it had had and fell completely to the floor with an impossibly loud clang that attracted the attention of everyone else. The other three pilots and Dr. J ran to Heero's side._

          "He's gone." Heero told them. They weren't sure if he meant that Wufei was gone from the lab – or if he was gone forever.

*Well, did you like that? I hope so. Reviews mean chapters, people! The next chapter is where it starts to get graphic so brace yourselves, everyone!*


	4. Losing Oneself

Okay! Here's the next chapter. This one has 'Chinese' in it which is indicated by the brackets. [These] I know Trowa doesn't talk a lot but I didn't like the scene using any other pilots – you'll see what I'm talking about. Yeah, this story has a little Soap Opera Drama in it but I really try to keep it at a low level. Also, this chapter's pretty graphic but not too much.

Virus

Continued

4. Losing Oneself

          Quatre sat pouting on one of Dr. J's examination tables, gingerly holding an ice pack to his left eye. He had regained consciousness after a while and he was given pain killers while his wounds – which were _very numerous – were tended to. Dr. J was thoroughly disgusted with him; he'd let Wufei escape._

          "Why were you in the room?" he demanded. Quatre blushed slightly, embarrassed at having let his guard down.

          "I – I was watching him and he was pacing like…like…well, like a caged animal. He leaned against the glass, but – I thought that he couldn't see me! I mean…you said that there was a mirror on Wufei's side!"

          "Just tell us what happened."

          "W-when he leaned against the glass, he – he started rubbing his head…I didn't know what was wrong, so I moved closer to try to see and he turned around and looked straight at me – I mean _directly into my eyes! I didn't realize what he was going to do until he did it."_

          "What did he do?"

          "He – he grabbed my shirt and pulled me through the glass. It really hurt, but it didn't knock me out. So, he punched me." Dr. J sighed. There wasn't much use in yelling at Quatre – they needed to find Wufei.

          "Well if he didn't kill you, there's still a little bit of human left in him." Dr. J stated. "I haven't yet developed a serum to fight off the organism, but I _did manage to figure out why he was acting so strangely and I came up with an injection to rectify that."_

          "Why _is he acting like that?" Quatre asked._

          "He's got a _huge chemical imbalance in his brain. His adrenaline levels are also dangerously high. The most I could do would be to give him a strong tranquilizer and some depressants so that his brain will stop producing the neurotransmitters that are causing the imbalance. This injection combines both of these things."_

          "Okay, so where do we look for him?" Duo asked.

          "Well, we have to think of possible reasons he would have left." Dr. J watched as the four pilots exchanged glances.

          "Oh come on, why would _any organism migrate?!" Dr. J demanded._

          "He might have left because he didn't like his surroundings…" Trowa suggested.

          "Okay, good. What kind of environment would he want to be in?" This was followed by another round of absent staring.

          "Alright, I'll tell you. His body temperature has dropped dramatically so he'll want to be some place cold. Also, he's very vulnerable to light so he's going to be some place dark. Last, he now requires vast amounts of water so he'll have to be somewhere damp. Can anyone think of a place that fits these properties?"

          "What about a meat locker? Meat lockers are cold and dark…" Duo offered.

          "But they're not damp." Quatre pointed out.

          "Well, they have ice in them…"

          "What about a swimming pool?" Quatre suggested.

          "A regular pool probably isn't cold enough." Dr. J said.

          "What about a sewer?" Heero mumbled. Dr. J considered this possibility.

          "A sewer is dark, damp and since it's underground, it will offer protection from the sun during the day and it will be cold – during the night, at least. That seems to be the most likely place we've thought of so far."

          "So we're gonna go snooping around in sewers?" Quatre asked, making a face.

          "It's our best bet. I can't think of any other place he might have gone…but we'll need to get equipped before we go." Dr. J told him.

***

          Armed with flashlights, tranquilizers and Dr. J's serum, the four Gundam pilots and Dr. J set off to search for Wufei. They hadn't gone far at all when they saw an open manhole in the middle of the street. Duo turned briefly in the direction they had come from. He could still see the building that held Dr. J's laboratory.

          "Geez, you'd think he'd go a little farther away…" he commented. Heero waved his flashlight at the edge of the manhole. There was a book lying near it and it was smeared with blood – normal, red blood. He noticed a trail of more books, papers and blood that led away from the sewer. He wondered if something had been dragged out of the sewer but upon closer examination, he concluded that something had been dragged _into the sewer. He pointed this out to the others._

          "You don't think he…_killed somebody, do you?" Quatre asked, afraid of the answer._

          "I hope not…" Duo murmured. 

          "Okay everybody put the filters on your flashlights. We're going in." Dr. J ordered.

          The sewer was indeed dark, damp and cold. Duo shivered as they moved along.

          "I didn't know it was gonna be _this cold…" he complained through shaking teeth. He wasn't the only one who was cold, though; everyone but Heero was shivering violently. Quatre moaned and whimpered as he felt something squish beneath his foot. His favorite shoes and pants were ruined. He'd have to throw them away – washing them a thousand times would never get them clean in his eyes. Heero was beginning to wonder if they would __ever find Wufei. The colony's sewer system was immeasurable and with the filters on their flashlights, they didn't have much to see by. And if Wufei didn't see the little round blue lights first, he would definitely hear them sloshing noisily through the grungy water. He snapped out of his thoughts and halted abruptly as he heard a sound. Duo bumped into him._

          "Hey!" he cried. "Why'd you stop?" Heero shushed him.

          "Do you hear that?" he asked the others, straining his own ears to catch the sound again.

          "What is that?" Duo wondered aloud.

          "It sounds like really loud breathing…" Quatre said, frowning in confusion.

          "Maybe it's someone crying…" Trowa mumbled.

          "Yeah, it sounds kinda shaky…" Duo supported.

          "Well don't just stand there! We need to see what it is." Dr. J growled. The five of them continued to move forward and at last their flashlights shined on a small figure sitting on the cement edge of the man-made 'river'. It was holding another figure out over the water at arm's length. The person didn't move as they approached nor did it flinch or shrink away as they shined the light of their flashlights on it. It was Wufei. He didn't seem to mind the dark blue lights being on him as much as he would have minded the pure light. He was covered in blood, his clothes were ripped and his hair was wild and untamed, sticking out in every direction and sticking to his face from the moisture in some places. The rubber band that had held it back was gone. 

          "Wufei?" Heero called. Wufei's head turned slowly. He gazed blankly at Heero. There were no tear streaks on his face but they saw that he was the person who was breathing so loudly. Heero dared to shine his light on the object Wufei was holding. He winced and there was a chorus of disgusted moans behind him as the others caught sight of what he was looking at. Whatever the object had been, it was now a bloody mess. It appeared to be wearing a dress but it was missing limbs and the chest cavity had been ripped open. Wufei whispered something in Chinese as he turned back to look at the girl. He repeated it as he ran a finger along her blood stained cheek. Trowa stepped forward and said something similar. Wufei hung his head and gave an almost inaudible response.

          "How come Wufei is only speaking Chinese?" Duo asked Dr. J.

          "Sometimes, when a person's mind has been compromised, he or she will revert to speaking whatever language they first learned." Dr. J replied.

          "What did he say, Trowa?" Quatre asked.

          "He said he…_ate her, basically." Quatre gagged at this statement. Wufei turned back to Trowa._

          "[What's happening to me?]" he asked. Trowa translated for the rest of them then asked Dr. J what he should tell Wufei.

          "Tell him that he's been infected with something that's changing him." Trowa turned and said this to Wufei. Wufei looked away and stared at the lifeless corpse in his hands. There was no expression on his face. He resembled a child trying to figure out what something was. He spoke without glancing at his friends.

          "[No, I'm human.]" He simply stated it. There was no questioning it. Trowa informed Dr. J of what Wufei had said. Dr. J dictated some new words and Trowa translated.

          "[We know that you're human but something is changing your body and mind. You have to come with us so -]" Wufei cut Trowa off before he could finish.

          "[I won't go anywhere with you!]" he exclaimed.

          "What did you _say, Trowa?" Duo demanded. Ignoring Duo, Trowa told Dr. J what Wufei had said._

          "I don't think he recognizes us." he added afterwards.

          "Well ask him." Dr. J said.

          "[Do you know who we are, Wufei?]" Trowa asked. Wufei stared hard the five people in front of him. After a few moments he snorted and turned away. Trowa turned to Dr. J and shook his head. Quatre wadded through the water towards Wufei.

          "Don't get too close." Heero warned. Quatre didn't kneel in the filth but he bent slightly so that he was at eye level with Wufei.

          "Wufei, do you remember me?" Trowa started to translate but Quatre silenced him with a wave of his hand. Wufei glared menacingly at Quatre for a moment then a pained look crossed his face. A memory played in his mind. He could see clearly how he had yanked Quatre through the glass window and punched him. He reached slowly towards Quatre's swollen eye. Quatre was tempted to run but he held his ground. Wufei's hand stopped however when he saw the cuts lining his arm – cuts made by the same glass window he'd pulled Quatre through. He dropped the body he'd been holding and examined his arms. Everything was coming back to him now. He remembered who he was and who the other pilots were and what had happened to him in outer space. But not all of his memories came back to him and it was still difficult to think correctly.

          "Where…where are…we…" he asked. A unanimous sigh of relief echoed throughout the tunnel as Wufei was heard speaking English again.

          "We're in a sewer." Quatre told him.

          "I…can't…think…" 

          "Dr. J made something to help clear your mind." Dr. J stepped forward at Quatre's words and pulled the syringe from his lab coat. Wufei jumped up and backed away, panting heavily.

          "It's okay, don't be afraid." Quatre said reassuringly. A loud clang echoed through the sewer as Wufei backed into a wall and his katana hit it. He glanced down at the glinting weapon at his waist. Everyone else's breath caught in their throats as they watched him pull it from its place at his side and examine it closely. He ran his thumb along its blade and watched his blood spread over it. A smile appeared on his face as he glanced down at Dr. J. He had remembered what he was holding and what he could do with it.

          "Well, we're screwed." Duo mumbled. Heero elbowed him in his side. "OW!" Dr. J was not about to admit defeat, however. He popped the filter off of his flashlight and shined it on the water below Wufei. Wufei's smile vanished as he stared at the light.

          "Heero, stand over there and do what I'm doing." Dr. J ordered. Heero obediently walked further down the tunnel past Wufei and after removing the filter, shined his flashlight on the wall to Wufei's left. Trowa caught onto Dr. J's plan quickly and shined his unfiltered light on the wall to Wufei's right. Quatre shined his flashlight on Wufei but kept the filter on. Wufei glanced about himself then hissed angrily at Dr. J. Sharpened teeth were visible below his lip.

          "You're surrounded." Dr. J said, stating what Wufei had already come to realize. "Now, let me give you the injection." Wufei smirked at Dr. J. His bare feet made no sound as he began to pace slowly back and forth on the cement walkway between Heero and Trowa's flashlights, swinging his katana at his side.

          "It's strange," he said. "That I, Wufei Chang, a member of the Dragon clan, I who pilot a Gundam in a war and have faced countless armies of mobile suits and fought the leader of those armies alone and lived, should be held at bay…by _flashlights." He laughed darkly at the irony of his statement._

          "Well it sounds like he has all of his memories back now." Quatre said, trying to be positive.

          "Yes, I remember everything now." Wufei said, the humor gone from his voice. "I remember how I weak I was. I let my body be invaded. I let my humanity be taken from me. Now I am no longer fit to pilot a Gundam so I have let all of you down."

          "Don't say that, Wufei! You haven't let us down!" Quatre protested.

          "But worst of all," Wufei continued, ignoring Quatre completely. "I let Nataku down. I will have to be destroyed…and I haven't yet avenged her death…" Wufei stopped pacing and closed his eyes. "Meiran…" he whispered. '_I am sorry my wife. I was not strong enough to honor you and bring those who wronged you to justice. I have failed you.' Wufei thought bitterly. Wufei's eyes snapped open as he felt a sharp pain in his leg. He whipped his head down to see Dr. J backing away and the syringe planted in his own flesh. He yanked it out of his leg and held it up to his eyes. It was empty and he could already feel himself succumbing to the drug. He flung the needle down furiously._

          "C-coward…" he stammered. He could see the other pilots moving in on him out of the corners of his eyes. He brandished his sword threateningly and backed against the wall. "Don't come…any close…r…" Wufei's vision blurred as he slid down the wall and dropped his arms to his sides. He watched as Heero lifted him and he tried to resist but there was no strength left in his limbs. All he could do was curse the people who were trying to help him.

          "We need to get him back to the lab immediately." Dr. J told the other four boys. "That serum was supposed to render him unconscious for two hours but it didn't even knock him out."

          "Let me…go…" Wufei murmured from Heero's arms. Heero ignored the plea. He suddenly found himself looking off to the side as Wufei mustered up enough strength to punch him. Heero glared down at Wufei only to see him out cold.

          "He's out _now." Heero informed Dr. J bitterly._

          "Was that emotion I heard in your voice, soldier?" Dr. J demanded. Heero halted in shock then regained control of himself. 

          "No." he replied.

          "Good."

*You know, I'm considering taking out that last little interaction between Heero and Dr. J. I've never really seen them talk or anything but from what I gather, Dr. J doesn't really respect Heero or treat him compassionately. What do you think? If you guys think I should, I'll take it out but it does kind of come into play later… Oh well. Review please!*


	5. Instinct

I never got around to congratulating The Priestess of the Wind on making the best guess so far and after reading only two chapters when I didn't even really give any clues. Congratulations – you're brilliant ^_^. This is a VERY OCC chapter on Wufei's part but not very graphic. Keep in mind that he bent a steel door when you get to parts dealing with strength. 

Virus

Continued

5. Instinct

          Wufei came out of the darkness that was his dream slowly. As he opened his eyes he saw the two objects slide from his vision once again. He still had no idea what it was he was seeing but he wasn't interested just at that particular time. He took a moment to survey his surroundings. He was in a large cage in a bare room with only a mirror fixed into one wall and a tiny window fixed into another. The window was open and sunlight was pouring in onto the floor of the cage. He noticed that his body was purposely positioned out of the way of the light. Not remembering anything that had happened after being locked up in Dr. J's observation room, he found this to be rather odd.

          "Did you sleep well?" A voice asked. Wufei had already seen Trowa in the room and wasn't surprised when he spoke.

          "No. What happened?"

          "Dr. J had to drug you."

          "Why?" Trowa made a confused face at Wufei.

          "You don't remember?" he asked.

          "Remember what?"

          "Where you went, what you did to Quatre…"

          "Nonsense. I didn't do anything to Quatre." As fate would have it, Quatre entered the room just then. Wufei stared openly at his black eye.

          "Does it really look _that bad?" Quatre asked sheepishly._

          "How did that happen?" Wufei demanded. Quatre exchanged glances with Trowa. Trowa shook his head.

          "Well, Dr. J's shot seems to have gotten you back to yourself, but somehow it's taken away a few of your memories." Quatre told Wufei. An expression of panic started to form on Wufei's face but it was quickly replaced by a malicious smile.

          "This is one of Maxwell's stupid pranks, isn't it?" he sneered. "I don't know how he got all of you to play along but I've figured it out now so you might as well let me out of this cage." Quatre moved closer to the cage.

          "I'm sorry Wufei, but this isn't a joke. There really is something wrong with you. We can't let you out until we fix it. You've become… _dangerous."_

          "I've _always been dangerous. And today I'll become lethal to that braided idiot."_

          "No, I mean you're actually dangerous. You killed someone. A young girl…you said you…_ate her." Now Wufei stood and walked to the front of the cage. _

          "I'm losing my patience. Open this cage so I can beat Maxwell into the ground." 

          "I'm sorry, Wufei." Quatre replied solemnly, shaking his head. Wufei's entire body began to tremble as rage built inside of him. Before he knew it, his hand was around Quatre's throat. Trowa instinctively jumped up to help Quatre but Wufei let go before he reached them. He pulled his hand back into the cage and examined it while holding it with his other hand. He looked up from his hand at Quatre and felt a pang of guilt as he saw his neck starting to bruise. Then he looked further up, past Quatre and Trowa into the mirror in the wall. He froze in shock, his mouth wide open. He could see long glistening fangs inside of his mouth but that wasn't the first thing he noticed. The irises of his eyes were now completely yellow, his pupils rimmed with a sickly green color. He blinked slowly and finally saw what had been sliding out of his vision – a second pair of eyelids. An evil smirk crept across the face in the mirror. His reflected self began to shake with laughter. He found himself backing away from the mirror and from his two friends. His laughter doubled in volume as he bumped gently into the bars that made up the back of the cage and slid to the floor. He threw his head back, laughing even harder causing his face to turn red. A thick dark substance oozed out of one of his nostrils and he continued to howl with laughter despite it. Neither Quatre nor Trowa tore their eyes from Wufei.

          "I don't think that's good…" Quatre murmured.

***

          Wufei hugged his knees close to his body as he rocked gently back and forth. There was a deep scowl on his face which was amplified by his serpent-like eyes. He sucked on one of his fangs as though it was an old habit, tasting the bitter-sweet venom that seeped out of it. He was immune to the poison, it being produced by his own body, but he knew full well that it could kill another human. '_No, just a human, not another human. You're not a human anymore.' Wufei reminded himself. He began to smile again at this thought. He didn't think it was funny but he couldn't keep himself from laughing. Somehow it just expressed his feelings better than anything else. He was aware of the other pilots and Dr. J watching him. They were standing right in front of him, after all. They attempted to comfort him and get him to think clearly but he shut down all their efforts simply by ignoring them._

          "Wufei, I _assure you that we'll be able to create an antidote." Dr. J repeated for about the tenth time. "We just need some more of your blood." Wufei continued to rock back and forth and didn't respond. Dr. J let out an exasperated sigh. Quatre approached him._

          "Can't you use what we got already?" he asked. Dr. J shook his head.

          "I tried to keep it moist but the cells dried up and died. I need new specimens or I can't continue the serum." Everyone jumped as Wufei spoke for the first time in hours.

          "How long?" he demanded. His friends stared at each other. Finally Dr. J answered him.

          "If the mutations continue at their current speed, I estimate you will be completely transformed by 10 o' clock tonight." A quiet chuckle rose from Wufei. Chills ran down numerous spines. '_I was weak before.' Wufei thought. '__But now I am becoming something powerful. I will avenge you, Nataku. I will fight for you and our families. I wanted to die but now I see what I can do. I won't just destroy OZ. I will destroy everyone who wronged you. Everyone who is weak and everyone who helped to create the weapons that took you from this world will die. I will destroy…the entire human race.'_

          "It's time for your shot again." Dr. J said, interrupting Wufei's thoughts.

          "Come give it to me." Wufei replied, an evil grin on his face. This was exactly what Dr. J had feared. Wufei's brain had gotten too far off balance and he was no longer thinking like himself. He was essentially a completely different person. He finally uncurled from his protective ball and leaned back against the bars of the cage, still avoiding the sunlight. He sighed contentedly and smiled slightly. Another chuckle escaped his lips. Dr. J walked up to the area of the cage that Wufei was sitting by and pulled out a syringe. Wufei glanced up at him, his yellow eyes glinting. There was no readable expression on his face.

          "I dare you to touch me." he said. His voice sounded chillingly calm. Dr. J backed away from the cage. He cleared his throat.

          "Heero," he called. "Come here and give Wufei this shot." Heero grunted to show acknowledgement then moved forward to do as he was commanded. He didn't hesitate to grab Wufei's arm but he didn't expect what happened next. He never saw Wufei move but he felt his arm being grabbed and his body being turned around. The next thing he knew Wufei had his arm around his throat and the needle pressed to his skin. After getting over his initial shock, he realized that his airway was being cut off. He pulled at Wufei's arm but found he couldn't budge it. This was impossible to him; he had always been the strongest of the pilots. His head clanged loudly against the cage's bars as he fought to get free, his brain already beginning to suffer from the lack of oxygen.

          "What will happen if I inject this into Heero?" Wufei asked, smirking.

          "It…it will…tranquilize him." Dr. J lied. He knew that the dosage of drugs in the syringe was enough to put Heero into a coma or even kill him. Wufei's smile grew bigger.

          "You're lying. I can _smell it." Wufei turned to look at what he was doing. Heero's eyes started to roll back in his head as he was gasping for air. Wufei pushed the needle into Heero's skin. Trowa acted without thinking. He flipped agilely toward the cage, snatched the needle from Wufei and flipped back. Wufei glanced at his hand then seeing that the syringe was gone, he __growled at Trowa. The growl was completely non-human. He slammed Heero's head against the cage violently, knocking him out, and then let his motionless form fall to the floor. He stared at Heero for a moment then, realizing what he had done, held his arm out for the shot. Dr. J took the syringe from Trowa, got a fresh needle and hesitantly proceeded to inject the medicine into Wufei's arm. Wufei twitched briefly as the drugs started to take effect. His eyes closed and he slowly fell to the floor of the cage._

          "I don't want this…" he mumbled just before unconsciousness overtook him.

***

          While Wufei was unconscious his friends endeavored to create a "vaccine" to combat the organism that was taking over his body. They also ran more diagnostic tests on him to try to figure out what mutations had occurred in his DNA and how it was affecting him. The whole time they monitored his brain waves to see when he would need another shot. Duo sat in the observation room behind the mirror with his feet up on the control panel. Quatre was in there with him, keeping track of Wufei's life signs. Duo was supposed to be watching the brain wave chart and he was, just not completely. Unbeknownst to the two of them, Wufei was having an intense dream. He was drifting aimlessly through the dark. A small light appeared and he floated towards it. He saw Sandrock clearing away debris then everything was dark again as the dark substance leaked into what he now realized was his helmet. He felt himself screaming but there was no sound.

          The graphing machine beeped loudly causing Duo to jump. He glanced at it. There was a large spike on it. He tapped Quatre on the shoulder.

          "Quatre, what do you think this means?" he asked. Quatre stared at the spike but just as he was about to say something the machine beeped again. Both boys saw an even larger spike drawn onto the paper.

          "I don't know what it is but if it's making the machine beep it probably isn't supposed to be happening."  Quatre said. He glanced through the window at Trowa and Heero, who had recovered, performing tests on the still sleeping Wufei.

          Wufei was running. He wasn't running from anything. He was _chasing something. He enjoyed the way the freezing wind felt on his skin and the way it blew through his loose hair. The human tripped – big mistake. He pounced…_

          Duo and Quatre hopped around frantically, trying to control the onslaught of paper streaming from the graphing machine. It had started beeping faster and faster and now it was simply holding one long annoying tone. The spikes were going off the edges of the paper. Unfortunately, Trowa and Heero could neither hear nor see what was happening behind the mirror and they had no idea what type of danger they were about to be in.

          Wufei ripped the human to shreds and tore into her flesh. The blood was sweet and the meat was tender. He threw back his head and let out a cry of both pride and defiance. It was not a human sound.

          Duo punched the intercom button, filling the testing room with the racket of the machines and causing Heero and Trowa to look up from their tests.

          "Heero, Trowa! GET OUTTA THERE!!" he cried. Heero and Trowa exchanged glances. Heero saw Wufei's hand twitch.

          "Did you see that?" he asked Trowa.

          "What?" Wufei's whole arm twitched this time.

          "That…" Without warning, Wufei sat bolt upright on the table, even though he had been strapped down with steel cuffs. He inhaled dramatically, his elongated fangs glistening in the black light. His eyes shifted nervously back and forth. Sweat poured down his face and he started hyperventilating.

          "Wufei -." Trowa began. Wufei jumped off the table and pinned Trowa to the floor.

          "_Hungry…" he panted. Heero yanked Wufei off of Trowa and threw him against the wall. Wufei's mind was being overloaded with thoughts, senses and nerves. '__Pain, anger, hunger – what's that smell? Blood – food! Human…food…too much…I can't take it! I CAN'T TAKE IT!!' Wufei cried out and took his head in his hands._

          "IT'S TOO MUCH!!!!!" he screamed. He moved without thought; he was ripping into something, someone and he didn't care. He needed to stop the pain of the overload. He felt hands trying to grasp his body but he wouldn't let them. He found himself backed into a corner. All of the other pilots and Dr. J were standing in front of him. They were all injured in one place or another, their clothes were shredded almost to the point of not even being there and there wasn't anything in the testing room that was still in tact. He opened his mouth and expelled his rage. His former friends covered their ears as the horrible sound swamped them. Wufei couldn't believe that he was making this noise but he kept making it anyway. The humans squeezed their eyes shut in pain, giving him ample opportunity to escape. He leapt up to the ceiling and latched onto the exposed air duct by thrusting his fingers right through the metal. Someone called for him to stop. He didn't recognize the voice; human speech meant nothing to him now. He slithered into the ventilation shaft. The other four pilots and Dr. J heard Wufei struggling through the vent then the noises ceased and they knew he was gone. They stood there in silence. After a long while, Dr. J spoke.

          "We have to keep him from getting out into civilization." he said emotionlessly. They exited the room gravely, their hopes of restoring Wufei all but shattered.

***

          Wufei crawled through the air conditioning system in search of food. His human mind struggled to regain control of his wayward body but it kept getting suppressed by his insatiable hunger. His new heightened sense of smell revealed the presence of living animals near by. He approached a vent and peered through it into a rather large room filled with caged test animals. His eyes locked onto a cage holding white rabbits. Saliva dripped from his open mouth. His logical mind screamed in protest but he was beyond listening to its tiny voice now. Unfortunately for him, one of the lights was on and the switch was all the way on the other side of the room. In the middle of figuring out how to turn off the light, Wufei spotted another cage near the light switch. It held a cow. '_Why would Dr. J have a cow?' Wufei wondered. For a moment his human mind came back to him and he started to think about Dr. J and the other pilots. Then the cow let out a loud 'moo' and his appetite took over again. Wufei flipped over onto his back and dug his fingers into the metal of the shaft. He popped open the grate, ripping the screws directly out of the wall, and proceeded to crawl along the ceiling avoiding the light by moving along the edges of the walls. '__Beef,' he thought. '__It's what's for dinner.' _

*Yeah…I kinda like that chapter. So do you guys think I should take out that thing from the last chapter or what? The next chapter is where the story gets interesting – the pilots and Dr. J have to figure out how to stop Wufei from changing as well as from killing before it's too late. Or is it already too late?*         


	6. Humanity

Virus

Continued

6. Humanity

          Duo groaned impatiently; his feet were beginning to hurt.

          "Where are we _going?!" he demanded._

          "To the main control room – we've got to turn on the lights on all the exits." Dr. J informed him. The five of them continued on down what seemed to be the millionth hallway. Dr. J stopped suddenly.

          "What was that?" he wondered aloud. His companions heard the sound too. They turned around and around looking for it. Dr. J's eyes locked on a door and an expression of absolute horror formed on his face.

          "My animals!" he screamed hysterically. "Not my precious test animals!!" Dr. J bolted for the door, the pilots staring at him like he was crazy. After bursting through the door Dr. J laid eyes on a very disturbing sight. There was blood all over the bone and fur littered floor. All the way at the other side of the room Dr. J spotted the bottom half of Wufei's body sticking out of a cow's body. He finally realized that the sound he had heard was Wufei ripping the flesh from the dead animal.

          "UGH! You parasitic freak! You worthless little - !" Dr. J turned red screaming insults at Wufei. Wufei pulled his head out of the cow's stomach and glanced uninterestedly in Dr. J's direction, a piece of blood soaked meat hanging from the corner of his mouth. Blood stretched from his nose down. Dr. J stomped towards Wufei, pointing an accusing finger and still spitting venomous insults. As Dr. J got closer, Wufei stood. 

          "…Can't possibly know how much those things COST!! If you ever touch one of my test animals again, you mutated side show monster, I'll - !" Wufei wrapped his hand around Dr. J's throat, silencing him. He slowly lifted him off the floor.

          "_You'll what?" Wufei demanded, his yellow eyes glinting. The other pilots, who had followed Dr. J into the room, gasped as Wufei spoke. They all heard his voice but none of them saw his mouth move. Dr. J started to pass out from lack of oxygen so Wufei threw him off to the side. Dr. J slammed into the bars of a cage and was knocked out cold. _

          "_So annoying…" Wufei said. The other pilots still couldn't get over the fact that Wufei's mouth wasn't moving when he spoke. Wufei turned to look at them. "__Hmm. Even more annoying humans…" he said as he wiped some blood off his face with the back of his arm. He started to walk towards his former friends. Duo whipped out his gun._

          "DUO!!" Quatre yelled.

          "What?! I ain't gonna just let him _attack us!" _

          "Duo put that away! You'll hurt someone!" Quatre ordered. He reached for Duo's gun. Duo tried to keep it away but this caused the gun to go off. Wufei grunted as the bullet sliced through his chest. The other four boys stood frozen with terror. They watched as Wufei dug his hand into his own abdomen and retrieved the bullet. Quatre winced at the squishing noises Wufei's organs made. Once he had removed the bullet, Wufei held it up to his face and examined it. There was no blood on it whatsoever.

          "_Interesting…" He dropped the bullet and watched as the wound in his chest healed. This gained several gasps from the horrified pilots. "__Now where was I?" Wufei started towards the other boys again. Trowa stepped forward. _

          "Wufei - ." he began. Wufei cut him off.

          "_Don't call me that. That isn't my name anymore." _

          "What is your name then?" Wufei faltered a little.

          "_Names are for humans. I simply am what I am. I need no name."_

          "You're right. Names mean nothing. I have no name, either. But names don't define who a person is. A person defines himself."

          "_Shut up. I don't want to hear your stupid double-talk, human."_

          "Yes, I am a human being. But so are you, Wufei." Wufei's face twisted into an expression of rage.

          "_NO!! I am NOT one of you! You are ALL weak!"_

          "Everyone has their own weakness. No one is perfect. That's what makes us human."

          "_That's what makes YOU human! I AM perfect! I am the perfect predator!"_

          "Are you really perfect? Are you really the perfect predator?" Trowa pulled the flashlight he'd had in the sewer from his pocket. It was off but Wufei's eyes still widened at the sight of it. Trowa smiled slightly.

          "You _do have a weakness after all." Wufei snarled menacingly and lunged forward. Trowa barely had any time to react; Wufei had become impossibly fast. The only thing Trowa had time to do was point the flashlight; Wufei knocked it from his hand before he could turn it on. Duo and Heero took aim with their guns. A swift kick from Wufei sent the weapons flying. The enraged Wufei turned on Trowa with a vengeful cry._

          "_YOU WILL DIE NOW, FILTHY HUMAN!!!!!!!!!!" Wufei landed a direct hit on Trowa's jaw, sprawling him out on the blood drenched floor. The other pilots moved in on Wufei._

          "Stay back!" Trowa ordered. The other pilots stared at Trowa in disbelief as he climbed back to his feet. The look on his face told the other pilots that he was dead serious. "Wufei –." The Chinese pilot backhanded Trowa viciously for the use of his human name.

          "_You will NOT call me that!!" Wufei yelled. Trowa turned his head back to face the disturbed teen._

          "Wufei," he repeated firmly. Wufei growled deeply then swung at Trowa again. This time Trowa caught Wufei's hand but Wufei quickly lashed out with his other hand, punching Trowa in the stomach. Trowa was a little winded but stayed strong.

          "You _are a human."_

          "_NO!!" Wufei tried to pull his arm away to hit Trowa again but couldn't get free. Trowa shook him to get him to stop struggling._

          "Listen to me. I know you don't want to hear it but you _are human. You're just confused right now. But you have to try to fight this thing inside you. We need you, Wufei." At this point Wufei began struggling wildly, blinded by fury._

          "_No, no, NO!! I am NOT a human! I'm not! I AM NOT!!" Wufei finally broke free from Trowa's grip and started attacking him. He punched him repeatedly at first, screaming out 'no' with every swing, then he switched to slapping and finally resorted to punching Trowa in the stomach. All the while his cries of rage and hatred grew more and more passionate and full of despair. Trowa also noticed that he seemed to be losing strength. Wufei panted from both exertion and pain. With some difficulty he lifted his arm and brought his hand down on Trowa's cheek. It should have been a slap but it was too weak to do anything. Trowa caught Wufei as he collapsed forward. Wufei spoke through his mouth._

          "I…I'm not human…anymore…" he said, his voice barely above a whisper. He didn't really sound like himself; his vocal cords were no longer correctly shaped for human speech.

          "We can help you, Wufei. But only if you let us."

          "I can't…I can't think for myself anymore. I can't tell which thoughts are mine and which thoughts are from…I want to be in control of myself, my life…but I can't…I c-can't…co-co-con…con…" Trowa felt Wufei beginning to twitch in his arms.

          "Fight it, Wufei. Stay in control." A low growl sounded from within Wufei's chest. He suppressed it and tried to speak.

          "L-l-losing…losing…my…can't…ssss…T-Trowa…g-get… get…get…GET OUT OF MY WAY!!" With an earth-shattering roar, Wufei tossed Trowa across the room.

          "WATER!! I _MUST HAVE ****__WATER!!!!!!" he bellowed. Having lost control once again, Wufei charged towards the door of the room. The other three pilots were still standing in front of it. Quatre jumped directly in his path and spread his arms and legs._

          "Wufei those aren't your thoughts! You're only helping the thing that's trying to take over your body!" Wufei stared at Quatre for a moment. Without warning, he grabbed Quatre's head in one hand. Quatre cried out as Wufei lifted him off the floor, squeezing his skull in his fingers.

          "I…" Wufei said, squeezing harder. "Am…" He squeezed even harder. Tears rolled down Quatre's face. "_Thirsty…" Wufei sent Quatre flying and bolted from the room in search of water._

          "Great…" Duo murmured as Heero buried his face in his hand.

***

          Two rather muscular delivery men were refilling the water coolers spread out all over Dr. J's lab. They hadn't gotten deep into the building yet so they still had plenty of jugs with them. At the moment they were taking a short break to enjoy some of the fresh spring water they'd just replaced.

          "Yeah, I heard the guy's some sort of mad scientist." The brown-haired one was saying. The two men laughed heartily. A small sound caused them to turn their heads. They were faced with a young boy about the age of fifteen with shoulder length black hair. His whole front and part of his face were covered with scarlet blood. For a moment the delivery men considered the possibility that Dr. J actually _was a mad scientist._

          "Water…" the boy repeated. His voice was quiet but they could hear – no, _feel – the__ tension in it. "Leave!" the boy commanded. His voice was like a spasm, like a violent eruption he had tried to hold in. The boy's face twisted in agony. "Leave…" This time the voice was a low moan and it seemed deeper. The blonde delivery man decided that he had a spine._

          "Look kid, we got a job to do and we ain't leavin' 'till we do it." he told the boy. The child, who had doubled over in pain, now crumpled in a heap. The man who had spoken edged closer as the boy started wheezing.

          "Hey kid? You okay? Can you hear me?" The boy's body shook with silent laughter.

          "You won't leave in peace?" he asked in a voice too deep to be his own, too deep to be human. His head lifted and his yellow eyes locked with the terrified blue ones of the man. He was grinning horridly. "Then you'll leave in pieces."

***

          Dr. J and the remaining pilots had split up to cover more ground. Trowa and Heero were to search for Wufei and capture him. Duo and Quatre went with Dr. J as protection and to help him turn on the exit lights. At that moment, Dr. J and his two companions were walking silently down the corridor leading to the main control room. If anything could be said for Dr. J's lab, it was that it was humongous. It was no wonder he had been able to construct a whole gundam there. Quatre had been given a change of clothes so the only sound being made by any of them was the rustling of his blue hospital scrub pants. On his feet he wore blue slippers that may as well have been shower caps due to the way they seemed to envelope his feet. Quatre was pondering the problem at hand, wondering what Wufei was going through and what they could do to help him. A sudden question from Duo tore him from his thoughts.

          "What will turning on all these lights do anyway?" he asked. Dr. J let out an annoyed sigh as though the answer was perfectly obvious.

          "We've seen that he's afraid of light. If all the exits are lighted, he won't try to get out."

          "But what if he destroys the lights?" Duo countered. Dr. J was silent. A furious roar echoed through the hallway. Quatre froze.

          "What was that?!" he asked. Duo stopped and turned to look at him.

          "What was what?" Another loud roar beat Quatre's ear drums.

          "That! That sound! Didn't you hear it!?!" Duo tilted his head to the side and listened.

          "I don't hear anything…" he said. Duo started walking again so Quatre moved hesitantly forward. Suddenly, a searing pain ripped through his chest.

          "Gaah - !" Quatre fell forward onto his knees. Both Duo and Dr. J stopped this time.

          "Are you okay, Quatre?" Duo inquired.

          "My…my soul…it's being…ripped to shreds…!" Quatre gasped. Another jolt of pain sliced through Quatre and he clutched his chest. Duo knelt beside him.

          "Quatre, are you having one of those Space-heart things!?!" Quatre nodded. "What do I do!?!" Quatre began coughing and hacking. Blood spurted from his mouth. Dr. J approached them.

          "What's going on here?!" he demanded.

          "I don't know! I don't how to help him!" Duo cried in panic.

          "The pain…the anger…" Quatre's eyes squeezed shut. "_…the hate…" He cried out as yet another ripple of agonizing pain caused him to throw his head back. Blood was flying everywhere._

          "Quatre! What are we supposed to do?!" Duo turned to Dr. J. "You're a doctor – help him!" Dr. J's mouth was hanging open from shock.

          "I – I've never seen…anything like this!" A sound very much like that of a car being ripped in half escaped Quatre's throat followed by a spray of crimson liquid. Duo and Dr. J covered their eyes as the blood fell on them. When they uncovered themselves, they saw Quatre standing in front of them, his fists clinched and panting heavily. Veins stood out all over his body. His narrowed eyes burned holes through theirs.

          "Quatre…?" Duo ventured.

          "_No…Quatre is not here…" Quatre growled. His voice was low and cold. They could feel the hate it carried. Duo and Dr. J retreated slightly._

          "You're really freakin' us out, Quatre." Duo said.

          "_Shut up, human filth!" Quatre snapped viciously. "__You will pay for what you have done…you will not be shown mercy…" Quatre advanced on Dr. J and Duo. Dr. J pulled a tranquilizer gun from his lab coat and handed it to Duo._

          "Use this! I'm sure you don't want to kill Quatre." he said. Duo nodded and took aim. Before he knew what had happened, Quatre had crushed the barrel of the gun. Quatre leaned closer to Duo, still holding the ruined gun in his hand.

          "_Foolish human. Do not **attempt **__to stop me. I am far more powerful than you can imagine." Having said that, Quatre tossed Duo down the hall. Next he turned on Dr. J._

          "_You humans…you are a reckless species. You destroy everything in your paths and leave even more destruction in your wake." Quatre moved slowly toward Dr. J. "__You took everything from me…my wife…my family… my home… my planet…now you must pay…" Dr. J froze in confusion. '__What did he mean by 'his planet'? His planet would be Earth…but he was born on a colony…but Earth is still there anyway…' he wondered. He couldn't make sense of it. Without warning Quatre hit the floor. Duo had jumped on him from behind. Quatre blinked and light returned to his eyes. The veins on his body disappeared. He glanced about himself._

          "What…what's going on?" he asked.

          "If only I knew…" Duo responded.

          "Yes…what is going on indeed…?" Dr. J wondered aloud.

***

          Trowa and Heero walked along in an eerie silence. The two stoic soldiers had nothing to say to each other and quite frankly, no desire to speak to each other anyway. All they were interested in was finding Wufei. And in due time, they accomplished that. They were turning down yet another boring gray hall when the sound of sniffing reached their ears. They followed it and came to a dark room. Turning on filtered flashlights, they entered the room cautiously and continued the search for the elusive Chinese pilot. Heero stumbled over a stray bottle. He shined his light on the plastic object not quite realizing it was only an empty water cooler jug._ But when he __did shine his light on it he saw that the mouth of the bottle had been severely mutilated as if whoever had drunk the water hadn't had even enough patience to unscrew the lid and had simply torn it off. Little did he know that this was unsettlingly close to the truth. He pushed the observation to the back of his mind and moved on. Trowa was examining the other side of the room with attentive scrutiny. He found a piece of cloth on the floor. He bent to pick it up, completely unaware of the golden orbs watching his back from the shadows. As he straightened he thought he sensed that he was being observed. He turned his head slightly to the right then quickly made a complete turn to the left. There was nothing there. Narrowing his eyes in suspicion, he pivoted back around and started walking again. He tripped over something but didn't fall. Instead he executed a perfect flip and landed on his feet, facing the object he'd tripped on. It was a body. It was a __dead body. The expression carved into the man's visage was one of complete and utter terror. His blue eyes were wide, glazed and frozen with the nothingness of death. His mouth was slightly ajar, perhaps to mutter one last word of protest, one last plea for his life. His plea for mercy had not been granted. The skin…why was the skin so pale, so sickeningly colored? He couldn't have been dead more than an hour. Trowa couldn't answer his own question. The sniffing caught his attention again, drawing him away from the cadaver and he was grateful – he had no wish to stare at it any longer than was necessary. He pushed his way through empty bottles and overturned science equipment to the area the noise was emanating from. The room was in shambles – random tools and water bottles were scattered haphazardly about the blood stained floor. It was nearly impossible to move. But at long last Trowa discovered the source of the sniffing. It was not, as he had expected, Wufei. It was actually the other delivery man, the brown haired one. He was in a way crying, though there were no tears on his face. He glanced up at Trowa._

          "Help…h-h-help me…." he begged. Trowa edged closer.

          "What happened?"

          "Please…he – he killed Tom…oh God, he _killed him!!"_

          "Okay…get a hold of yourself. Come on, you'll be fine." Trowa held out his hand but the man kept staring at him as though he hadn't moved.

          "He's gonna kill everyone! He's gonna kill EVERYBODY!!! Do you hear me!?! You have to stop him! PLEASE! You have to -!" The man's head tilted up sharply and there was a distinct crack. He slumped lifelessly to the floor. Trowa backed away as a figure stepped out of the shadows.

          "You know, Trowa, I don't really like killing people," The all too familiar voice was unnervingly calm. There was a flash of white in the darkness, the reflection of light on his fangs as he smiled. "But I can't seem to help myself." Wufei broke into wild laughter that attracted Heero to the scene. Neither Heero nor Trowa had time to think – Wufei attacked.


	7. Yin and Yang

Don't expect anything normal from Wufei. He's crazy. But he's still my favorite! Raise your hand if you hate this site. All my reviews are gone.

Virus

Continued

7. Yin and Yang

          Wufei groaned in pain. He opened his eyes and watched his second eyelids flash out of his line of vision. '_Disgusting…' he thought, frowning. The first thing he could see was a shattered light fixture. The room was well lit, in fact brighter than he could have imagined it to be. But all the lights had been destroyed. More pain tore through his body as he sat up. He was surrounded by the scenes of a massacre. He leaned forward dizzily. '__I can't see…but just a moment ago…' Filthy black hair was hanging in his eyes but he didn't realize it for moment. When he did, he lifted a hand to run a finger through it and push it back. The hand stopped short. '__My fingernails… claws…' Truly his fingernails had become sharp, curved claws – blood stained claws. As he was staring at his newly formed claws he felt something drip from his chin. Fearing what it might have been, he hesitantly moved the hand to his chin then glanced at it. Fresh blood came off on his fingertips – but it was not his own. He became aware of a strange taste in his mouth._

          _Wufei pinned the human to the floor. The screams were music to his ears. He laughed and when he closed his mouth there was flesh, blood… so much blood…it tasted so good…_

          Wufei glanced down at the rest of his body. His once white pants were almost completely red with blood and his shirt was stained too but since it was of a dark color, the stain wasn't so noticeable. His arms were covered with the liquid…

          "What…" Wufei's voice was hoarse and trembling. "What did I _do?" He regretted speaking immediately. The taste of the blood increased. It was sweet like sugar…like candy…it was good…__too good. At that moment he went into mild shock. '__God…dirty…so dirty…filth…' Wufei spied a full water jug. He reached for it and with shaking hands unscrewed the lid. He ignored how soothing the water felt as he poured it over his head and scrubbed his face and arms mercilessly. '__So dirty…get it off, get it off…nasty, dirty…filthy…' Rumbling within his chest caused him to stop. He had begun to growl unconsciously. Silencing the noise, he tilted the bottle and sucked water into his mouth. He gargled and swished it around then spit it out.  Another sound made him cease his actions. It was breathing, shallow breathing. Sitting the bottle down, Wufei crawled weakly towards the noise. He reached a pile of twisted metal and fragments of other items. The pile moved. It rose slowly then fell and rose again. There was a person under it. Wufei pulled away the rubbish to see who it was. Emerald green eyes met his. A hand reached for a near by gun but didn't make it._

          "Trowa…"

          _Trowa threw a punch. Wufei caught his hand. Trowa was flying through the air in seconds. He hit a wall…_

          Wufei dragged Trowa out from under the rest of the scraps and laid him against a relatively clean wall. He limped over to the bottle of water and dragged it back to where Trowa sat. Trowa gave him a suspicious glance as he offered the water. '_I'm hurting people…what's happening to me?' Wufei thought to himself. His thought seemed to echo. Trowa's eyes widened slightly. Wufei was a little taken aback. '__Did he hear? No he couldn't have…'_

          "Y-you don't…remember, do you?" Trowa asked.

          _Wufei laughed at the injured soldier on the floor. He spoke. He was mocking him, insulting him…but his mouth, his throat…neither were moving…_

          Wufei shook his head. Trowa's head rolled away from him and his eyes closed. A small smirk crossed his face. '_Almost killed me…doesn't even remember…' he thought. He coughed, blood splattering his skin and clothes. Wufei resisted the urge to sample the ruby red substance. He sat back, crossing his legs and folding his arms. Trowa turned back slightly._

          "Wufei?" he said, raising an eyebrow. 

          "I won't pretend I don't know something's wrong…" Wufei said. "I have huge gaps in my memory…and my body is…" Wufei's eyes wandered to the floor. He noticed the claws on his feet.

          "Are you afraid?"

          "I don't know _what I am anymore. A part of me wants to rip your head off…"_

          "What about the other part?"

          "The other part wants to strangle you with your own intestines." Wufei looked up at Trowa suddenly. "I'm leaning towards that part…" Trowa started to stand.

          "Sit down. You're too weak to try to walk." Trowa ignored this statement and continued his efforts. However, Wufei proved to be correct; Trowa's injured muscles gave out and he slid back to the floor.

          "Where's Heero?" he asked. "I can't see anything…"

          "What do you mean you can't see anything? I can see perfectly fine. There's enough light."

          "You can see…in the dark…" Wufei's eyes widened. The eerie glow they gave off intensified. Trowa watched with mild interest as Wufei's pupils contracted into small slivers. '_Like a snake…' he observed. Wufei blinked and looked away. His pupils dilated back into a more or less round shape. '__Like a dragon…' he added onto his previous thought. Wufei's head rose sharply. He was looking for something. Still sore and limping, Wufei made his way to where Heero had pushed a piece of metal off of himself. The resulting sound had not been loud enough for even him to hear but Wufei's sensitive ears picked it up. Heero ran a hand through his messy bed of dark brown hair. He glanced up into two yellow eyes. A gun barrel was pressed into the soft flesh below Wufei's jaw in a split second, making him tilt his head back. Apparently, Heero had not been as badly injured as Trowa. Wufei's eyes narrowed. He growled deeply. Heero clicked the safety off. _

          "Heero…" Trowa called weakly. "He's back…it's okay…" Heero glared at Wufei for a moment, trying to decide for himself if Wufei was back to normal – mentally at least. Wufei ceased his growling. He seemed to be becoming afraid. Heero lowered his gun but left the safety off. Before he had time to react, Wufei raked all five of his claws across his right cheek. Heero drew his gun once more but Wufei ducked out of the way and seized Heero's arm.

          "I didn't do it on _purpose, idiot!" he snarled. Some of the anger disappeared from Wufei's face. "I don't have complete control right now." Heero glared at Wufei and touched his cheek gingerly._

          "Hn…" Wufei limped back over to Trowa as Heero unearthed himself. Limping just as badly, Heero made his way towards the two of them. He swore as he stubbed his toe on a chunk of wall. He let himself fall to the floor when he reached the others. Settling into a sitting position, he picked up the water jug and took a few gulps.

          "Why did you stop?" he asked after he had had his fill of water. A puzzled look came over Wufei's face.

          "What do you mean?"

          "You were trying to kill us. Why did you stop?"

          _Wufei advanced on Heero. He was smiling, laughing…then pain, suddenly, unexpected…visions…a world not his own…his head, it was pounding, the pain, the pain…make it stop…_

          "I…I don't know…" Wufei shook his head but the memories wouldn't come to him. Everything that made him who he was – his attitude, his seeming disregard towards others – was gone. But it could come back at any moment, amplified by a hundred. Then instead of a confused and scared child he would be a crazed and vicious beast. His mind and personality were completely out of balance. Heero and Trowa exchanged meaningful glances and struggled to their feet. Heero pulled out the hand restraints Dr. J had given him. He could see only Wufei's eyes in the pitch black room and he followed them as they moved from the hand cuffs to his face. Heero was unmoved by the pleading gaze. Slowly Wufei stood and held his wrists out. Heero pulled his arms behind his back and cuffed them. Once Wufei was secured Trowa led the way out into the hall. They proceeded in dead silence. Upon rounding a corner they came upon a straining light. It was blinking on and off and sparks flew from it every couple of seconds. Wufei halted immediately. Heero tried to push him forward but with all his wounds, he failed miserably. Wufei hissed at the light. His fangs and slit eyes seemed to make it more powerful. Wufei's fangs were bared again as his face twisted into a horrid smirk. Heero was sent sliding down the hall. Trowa stared at the growling Wufei before him. He caught sight of the broken chains hanging from his wrists. Trowa dove for Wufei as he bolted and caught his ankle. Wufei hit the floor. He blinked then rolled onto his back. After looking around for a moment he seemed to realize that Trowa had a hold of him. He kicked his leg.

          "Let go of me! What are you DOING?!" he growled. Trowa blinked in confusion. He narrowed his eyes in thought. It was only seconds before he reached a conclusion – Wufei had developed a split personality. This was certainly a problem. While he was thinking, Trowa loosened his grip and Wufei freed himself. He stood and glared down at Trowa. There was movement behind him. A quick flip and Heero was flat on his face. Wufei smirked at the two floored pilots then noticed that something was off. They were too far away and they were upside down. No…_he was upside down. He was stuck to the ceiling._

          "What…how?" he wondered aloud. He pulled his hand away from the ceiling and watched as a thick, dark green residue formed strings between the two. As Wufei stared at the substance the reality of what was happening to him set in. He fainted. Trowa and Heero saw his body go limp but he remained adhered to the ceiling. Exchanging confused glances, the two soldiers stood and edged towards Wufei. Trowa gave Heero a look that seemed to say, 'Now what do you think of that?' Heero looked up at Wufei. There was, as always, not much of an expression on his face but truthfully, he didn't know _what to think of Wufei's hanging upside down by his own bodily secretions. What __can one think about that? He shrugged it off and reached for Wufei. Two pairs of eyelids snapped open and glowing gold met Prussian blue. The rapidly disappearing figure that was Wufei stirred up a strong wind as it raced along the ceiling, leaving dripping foot and hand prints behind. Heero's eyes were slightly widened. He was still staring at the place Wufei had been only milliseconds ago, his hand still partially extended to pull Wufei down by his clothing. Trowa turned and shined his flashlight down the hall Wufei had disappeared into. '__We better go get him…' he thought._

***

          Dr. J, Duo and Quatre finally reached the main control room. The echo of dripping water could be heard all around them.

          "Why is there water dripping here?" Quatre asked.

          "This part of the building is beneath a large lake," Dr. J explained. "Didn't you notice your ears popping as we went?" They entered the room without hesitation and set to work. Dr. J explained how to use the numerous computers to turn on some lights and turn off others. This way they could set up boundaries of a sort. Quatre moved toward a computer near the far end of the room. He cried out in horror as he spun the chair around. Duo glanced over at him and his face paled. Dr. J walked towards the dead body. It was swollen and green besides severely mutilated. He pulled out a spare oxygen mask and leaned forward to examine the man. After a moment he turned back to the two pilots with him.

          "This man was poisoned." he stated.

          "How can you tell?" Quatre asked.

          "His body is swollen and discolored. This would indicate that his antibodies were trying to swarm around the poison and cut it off from the rest of the body. Also, the discoloration is due to lack of oxygen prior to death. My opinion is that the poison paralyzed him so that he couldn't move _or breathe._

          "What a way to go…" Duo said vaguely.

          "So that means Wufei is poisonous?"

          "Yes, I'm afraid so. We have to be very careful. We don't have an antidote and if one of us was to be bitten we would surely die."

          "How fast do you think this stuff works?" Duo asked.

          "I am reluctant to guess. This man wasn't dead very long. He could have been killed by the poison or by Wufei. The poison could work very fast…or it could work very slowly. Neither one is better." The three of them stared blankly at the corpse for a moment before Dr. J broke the silence once again.

          "Come on, we haven't a moment to lose. We need to get those lights turned on." They turned their attention to the computers once more and began to work. A loud wail went up in the room. The words 'naughty, naughty' flashed on every screen.

          "Wufei may be turning into some kind of monster but he ain't stupid!" Duo growled, throwing his hands over his ears. Dr. J scowled at his ruined computers. Wufei had hacked the system and set up boundaries of his own. Now getting those lights on would take even more time – time they didn't have. It was already 7 o' clock. That left them with just three hours before Wufei would be completely transformed. Not to mention the fact that they still needed to create a vaccine to kill off the organism in his body and possibly one to combat the poison his body now produced. The way things were looking, the virus had already won.

          "Damn it!"

***

          Wufei scrambled back and forth, toting miscellaneous items to his hiding place. '_My lair…my territory…' He was constructing something, he didn't know what, but he felt that he should. '__Building, building…what am I building? I don't know, I don't know…build it now…' He had discovered that he could will the sticky slime to come out of his hands whenever he wanted and he was using it as a sort of glue. He threw an ooze-drenched lab coat onto the structure. '__I need this…it's good for me…' He sat back on his haunches, much the way a dog would, and gazed admiringly up at his creation. Its thick vines stretched to almost every wall in the area, each dripping with the molasses like substance. It strongly resembled a large spider web with a knot in its center. The knot was spherical in shape but had a small chunk missing just big enough for Wufei to fit in. '__What is it?' he wondered. '__It's beautiful…it's my home…' Wufei had no idea that his thoughts were incorrect. He believed what he was doing was the right thing, that he __should be building a nest, that he __should be killing off humans…he had forgotten what he was. He had forgotten __who he was. A rat chanced a mad dash past Wufei. A claw lashed out with lightning speed. Only a desperate squeak and the rat was gone, its spine having been severed. Wufei picked it up and calmly bit off its head, acting as though he were merely watching a movie and enjoying a bit of popcorn. Obsidian blood seeped out of his nostril. It stained the fangs that were exposed because of his grin. '__There's no place like home…'_

***

          It had been over half an hour and Trowa and Heero still had not found Wufei. They were following the trail of hand and foot prints Wufei had left behind. Just when they were about to stop and rest for a moment, the prints changed direction suddenly. They led into the ventilation shaft. The grate which had been covering the opening was lying torn and dented on the floor. Trowa bent to offer Heero a step up but the Wing pilot only grunted and jumped up high enough to reach the entrance himself. He pulled his body in swiftly. Trowa shrugged and followed suit, only performing the task with far more grace and speed than Heero had. Once inside the shaft Heero gave Trowa a look as if to say, 'show off'. Trowa replied with a small smirk. They continued. 

          Heero led the way through the twisted and turning tunnels of the air conditioner. The two boys crawled determinedly onward, still hot on the trail of prints – until they reached a puddle of slime, slipped and fell flat on their faces. Heero tried to lift his torso out of the freezing cold fluid. But as soon as he got himself out his hands slipped out from under him and he was face down in the goop once again. Trowa rolled into his back so he could breathe. His long overhang of hair stuck to his cheek. As he stared up at the ceiling of the shaft an idea entered his mind. He pulled himself forward by pushing against the clean metal of the ceiling. When he reached Heero he told him to do the same. After a moment of brief disorientation, the soldiers were on their way again. Luckily, they reached their destination in only a few minutes. The air duct opened abruptly into a wide hallway. Here they could stand and the slime was even thicker but it was, in fact, so thick that it actually held their feet down rather than make them slip. It was like walking through extremely dense quicksand, but they couldn't sink past their shins. Even worse was the dangerously low temperature of the liquid; it was numbing their legs. But they fought on, not willing to give up so easily. Though Heero was shining his light before himself, he jumped slightly in surprise and something brushed over his face. He swiveled around to see what it had been. He saw Trowa behind him and nothing else. Trowa shined his light onto Heero's face.

          "What is it?" he asked. As Trowa's light moved Heero saw the object – or _objects, rather. There were gossamer thin strings of slime hanging from the ceiling. They could easily have been taken for spider webs. He reached for one and took it in his hand. It became liquid on his skin; his body heat had melted it._

          "Hn." he grunted. They resumed their search and came to an enormous opening. It contained a huge structure and randomly positioned vines hanging from the ceiling. The entire room was covered in slime. Trowa and Heero's eyes fell on a small figure sitting before the abomination. It turned slowly. Its manner was calm, unshaken by the monstrosity it had created. Somewhere in the building blonde hair stood on end as the body it belonged to stiffened. Blue eyes stared unseeing straight ahead. The same words filled the air, formed by the voices of both Wufei and Quatre.

          "_My time…is coming. But your__ time…has come." Slick tentacles came at Trowa and Heero from every direction. They fought against the murderous vines cutting off their airways, squeezing their bodies almost to the point of bursting. But gradually their struggling became slower, weaker… Two flashlights fell in the darkness. No one was around to hear it. Did it make a sound?_

*Now THAT'S a chapter! Please review if you like this! It's getting good! My previous reviews may be gone, but the story goes on my friends, the story goes on!*


	8. Truth

A lot of things get brought to light in this chapter. Actually, only three things get revealed but that's enough. Find out what they are! Oh, I just realized something. In the last chapter Duo made a comment about Wufei not being stupid…uh, just ignore that. I meant to change it but I forgot. Gomen nasai.

Virus

Continued

8. Truth

          At long last, Quatre, Duo and Dr. J had gotten around Wufei's tampering and manipulated the lights into barriers. Now with only two hours left before Wufei's transformation would be complete, they had to work quickly to create a cure. Dr. J was leading Quatre and Duo to a nearby chemical lab. He could access the information they had already gathered from testing on just about any computer so they could start on the vaccine there. Duo noticed the floor getting sticky. No, perhaps sticky wasn't the correct word. It was more like…grabby. The floor seemed to be holding his feet down.

          "Uh…look Dr. J…I know you're a busy man and all…" he grunted as he yanked his foot up. "But would it kill ya to mop the floors once in a while?" Dr. J ignored Duo's comment and stopped to examine something on the wall. It was a handprint. He ran the fingers of his good hand over it. It was like water but when he tried to push a finger into it, it hardened. Thinking about it a moment, he decided not to push his finger in but rather let it settle in. This worked.

          "Incredible…" he gasped. The substance hardened again as he tried to remove the finger. So once more he had to relax and let his finger slide out. It was then that he realized that this substance could prove useful in climbing walls – which is what it had been used for.  The two young pilots fought their way over to where Dr. J stood.

          "Do you notice how your feet sink in?" he asked them. They gave him cynical looks. "Now just stay still. Your feet don't sink anymore!" The boys glanced down at their feet. They were planted firmly on top of the goop.

          "Hey! How did _that happen?" Duo asked in amazement._

          "It would appear that the molecules of this substance are not completely bonded. They resist separation but they also resist being pushed together. They must be both positive and negatively magnetically charged."

          "Would you run that by me again?" Dr. J let out an exasperated sigh at Duo's lack of comprehension. Quatre decided to explain.

          "It means that if you push your feet down on the stuff they won't go in and if you try to pull them out, they won't come out."

          "So then how have we been able to walk?" Dr. J took over the explanation this time.

          "When you walk, you put weight on one foot at a time. The foot without weight on it sinks into the liquid. Once the weight is transferred and the foot relaxes, the liquid releases it somewhat, allowing you to pull it out."

          "Okay…I understand how it works…but what's the point?"

          "If a person was able to produce this substance they could walk straight up walls."

          "I still don't see the point." Dr. J was going to give Duo a piece of his mind when Quatre spoke up suddenly.

          "Look! There's an open vent!" He pointed his flashlight above Dr. J's head. There was indeed an uncovered ventilation shaft in the wall and it was overflowing with the thick fluid. The three of them already knew what it meant. Wufei had gone down that shaft. And who only knew what he had taken down there with him…

          "Heero and Trowa probably came this way…" Quatre mumbled.

          "And if they did come this way they would have seen this…" Duo added.

          "I ordered Heero to find Wufei so he would definitely have gone in there…" They all exchanged glances. There was almost no stopping Quatre and Duo as they scrambled to get into the shaft.

          "I'll be in the lab around the corner when you get back!" Dr. J called after them. He was answered by a resounding 'okay' from the vent. He stared after them until he couldn't hear them at all. Finally he was left alone in the darkness. Turning his flashlight on his new path he started out for the chemical lab to get working. _Shuck, shuck… Dr. J wheeled around, aiming his flashlight like a laser. Nothing…there was nothing behind him. So he continued on, trying to push his paranoia to the back of his mind. __Shuck, shuck… There wasn't anything behind him, he told himself. He was alone – alone in the dark. His feet moved faster without command – they were aware of the danger and weren't about to stick around for it to come. __Shuck, shuck, shuck… The sound was getting faster. He scolded himself for being so afraid. __Shuck-shuck-shuck… Dr. J wondered if the creature could hear his heart beating. He could – it was in his ears. Just as he thought he would break out into a run he caught sight of his feet. __Shuck… He burst into relieved laughter. It had been __his feet the whole time._

          "Oh J, you really _are a senile old fool." he chuckled to himself. His laughter was silenced without warning. Another flashlight hit the floor._

***

          It wasn't long before Quatre and Duo found Trowa and Heero. Most of the slime had been moved and the resulting trail had led them straight there. When they emerged into the huge slime filled room the first thing they saw of course was the huge nest Wufei had built. They scanned its surface from top to bottom, taking in every visible detail and when they got to the bottom they spotted the two other pilots suspended about three feet off the floor. Fearing the worst, they ran to the unmoving boys hanging near the nest. Duo stopped in front of Heero and gazed into his face. The area around his mouth was covered in slime. Trowa's face was also lightly covered with the sticky liquid. Quatre wiped a bit of the stuff from Trowa's face and examined it. He noted that it gave off a sweet scent. Then he found himself in Duo's arms.

          "What…what happened?" he mumbled.

          "I dunno. You were starin' at that stuff then you fell over." Duo told him.

          "It's….it's sleeping gas…get it off…" Duo nodded and laid Quatre down. He wiped the slime off of Heero's face with the hem of his tanktop. Almost immediately Heero began to stir. Heero's eyes blinked open slowly. He was met with a grinning boy. He tried to say Duo's name but he couldn't move his mouth.

          "Don't worry, Hee-chan! I'll get you outta that!" Remembering what Dr. J had told him, Duo held Heero so that he was neither pulling on the vines nor pushing against them. Heero's limbs slid free and Duo laid him next to Quatre. He repeated this process for Trowa.

          "Whew…" he panted, wiping imaginary sweat from his brow. "You guys should really lighten up on those meals." Laughing lightly at his joke he moved toward Heero. Quatre got up and glanced over Duo's shoulder down at the motionless pilot. Then he looked over at Trowa who was also not moving. The only movement coming from either of them was the steady rising and falling of their chests and the blinking of their eyes.

          "Why aren't they moving?" Quatre wondered aloud.

          "I don't know…" Duo scratched his head.

          "I guess that slime has some kind of paralyzing effect." Duo knelt by Heero.

          "Blink once if you feel this. Don't blink if you don't feel anything." he told him. He pinched Heero's arm. Heero didn't blink. He gently slapped Heero's cheek. Again, Heero didn't blink.

          "I think they might just be numb." Duo stated.  Quatre nodded.

          "Yeah, that stuff was pretty cold."

          "So what do we do?"

          "Well, we have to try to get them out of here…"

          "We can't drag them through the shaft with us, there's not enough room for that."

          "You're right. We have to get the feeling back in them somehow…"

          "We have to make them warm. The best way to do that is to get their hearts going."

          "Well we can't have them get up and run around."

          "Well we can't just leave them laying there, either!" An idea struck Quatre.

          "And we're not going to leave them laying there!" He picked up Trowa's arms and began moving them around. Duo raised an eyebrow.

          "You okay, Quatre?" he asked.

          "If we move them, their blood will start moving again. That will put the feeling back in their bodies!" Quatre was right. Already Trowa could feel life and strength returning to his limbs. Duo turned to Heero. The Prussian blue eyes narrowed threateningly. A last look at Trowa was enough to convince him; he saw Trowa's fingers move.

          "Sorry, Hee-chan, it's for your own good." Unable to stop Duo, Heero watched as the loud-mouthed American played with his limp appendages. He decided that as soon as he could move again he would beat Duo up as a way of thanking him. A smirk would have crossed his face just then if he could've managed it.

***

          At 8:30 p.m. all the pilots but Wufei crawled wet, sticky and some a little bruised from a ventilation shaft. Duo mumbled something about ungratefulness as he gingerly caressed his bruised arm.

          "Let's go this way!" Quatre exclaimed, pointing his flashlight. They unknowingly retraced Dr. J's footsteps and found themselves in the chemical lab he was supposed to be waiting in. There was a small puddle of slime on the floor. Quatre moved toward it cautiously.

          "I wonder where this came from." A thick drop of the dark green liquid narrowly missed hitting his arm, sending him stumbling back a few steps with a start. He followed its trail up to the ceiling. 

          "Oh my God…" Adhered to the ceiling with an incredible amount of the sticky stuff was Dr. J, unconscious due to the slime on his face.

          "You're lucky that he's only asleep." All four boys' attention shifted to the source of the words. Wufei sat calmly on a desk, leaning on one bent leg and letting the other hang over the edge. Quatre filtered his light and shined it on Wufei. With the light on him, they could see that he had gone back to speaking telepathically.

          "Wufei, what are you doing? Look at yourself! You need help, Wufei. Let us help you!" he pleaded. Wufei acted as though he hadn't heard this.

          "He's been lying to you, you know." he said. Quatre blinked.

          "Who's been lying to me?"

          "Him…" Wufei lifted a clawed hand lazily, indicating Dr. J. "He's been lying to all of you. You think he's been working on a way to remove this organism from my body but in truth, he has been looking for a way to control me and leave the organism right where it is."

          "Why would he do that?"

          "Don't be so naïve, Quatre. He would do it because there's something in it for _him. What does he want? He wants another, more perfect soldier, of course. He wants a soldier that's faster, stronger; __better than any human could ever be. Do you think he cares about my weakness against light? Undoubtedly he thinks he can train me out of it. All he would need to do is find a way to tame me, to brainwash me like he did Heero and he would have the ultimate weapon._

          "But…"

          "But what? But at least he cares about humanity's future? I care about humanity's future too. I care to see that humanity _has no future. You humans are so selfish. You do nothing for others, you care only for yourselves. Even you, Quatre. Why do you help people? You do it because it makes __you feel good, because it makes __you happy. You get something from being nice and so you keep doing it. All humans share this trait. This is the very same trait that destroyed my people."_

          "What are you talking about? Your people are humans!" The lab swirled and melted into a different setting. They were standing on the bare, rock hard surface of what seemed to be a planet. The sound of explosions reached their ears. Cargo shuttles and construction workers swarmed around them.

          "This is my home before it was destroyed." Wufei narrated. "The humans you see there were building the drifting synthetic planets you call colonies. They were blasting debris that was too large to move. My home was one of the objects targeted for destruction. " Slowly, oddly shaped creatures began to appear. They slithered up from below the surface of what was actually a large rock.

          "My people could not defend themselves against such powerful weapons. We were still very primitive in the field of technology. The humans never even knew of our existence but they destroyed our entire civilization. They wiped out in seconds what took millennia to build." The other pilots watched as a seemingly giant man planted some explosives right near them. He pushed off and drifted away. Without warning, the explosives went off. A long, thin arm stretched towards one of the creatures. It was then that they realized they were seeing this from the organism's perspective. It had been reaching for its mate. Then suddenly there was darkness.

          "I don't know how long I drifted out there in space. Well, I didn't until I inhabited this body." The darkness blurred then cleared. A battle scene filled their vision. They saw Wufei's gundam firing at a mobile suit. Then an asteroid sliced through its thrusters.

          "Do you see those asteroids? They are the only remainders of my home." They drifted closer to Wufei's gundam. None of them realized that they were on the same asteroid that had damaged the gundam so badly on their last mission. Finally the rock crashed into the cockpit and they could see Wufei. His voice bounced vaguely against their ears drums. They seemed to be sliding towards him and he didn't realize it. The sequence skipped ahead to when the organism had actually entered Wufei's body. There was an expression of absolute horror on his face just before they disappeared down his throat. Then just as quickly as the vision had begun it ended and they found themselves in Dr. J' laboratory once again.

          "So now you know why I want to destroy all humans. I am here to avenge the death of my civilization and to create a new one."

          "You…you're not Wufei…" Quatre said, pointing an accusing finger.

          "That is correct. I am neither the human called Wufei nor the creature whose home you destroyed. Their minds have blended together to create me. The alien part of me will purge the universe of humans and the human part of me will replace those killed."

          "How do you plan on making a new civilization without another… person to have children?"

          "I have noticed that your species is viviparous. However, my species has the option of being either viviparous or asexual. I have already modified this body to these specifications."

          "What exactly does _that mean?" Duo asked. Wufei turned an annoyed gaze toward the American._

          "It means I can reproduce without sexual intercourse if I choose to do so."

          "Oh…okay, I get it." Duo said, nodding. Wufei rolled his yellow eyes.

          "You can't do this! You can't just destroy the whole human race!" Quatre argued, nearly yelling.

          "And why not, since humans just destroyed _my race?"_

          "That was…an accident." Wufei broke into wild laughter.

          "An accident! An accident, he says! Do you see that woman over there?" Wufei pointed to a corner. There was indeed a dead woman lying there that they hadn't noticed before. "I didn't _mean to kill her, it was an accident. Now you tell me, does the fact that it was an __accident make it better?" Quatre was silent. "I didn't think so."  Wufei settled back on the desk. After a moment of deep thought, Quatre spoke again._

          "You said that Wufei's mind and that thing's mind blended together. I don't believe you." Wufei's eyes widened slightly. "Wufei would never agree to your plan. You _have to be controlling him somehow."_

          "Even so, it doesn't matter. If he still had a separate consciousness there wouldn't be anything he could do to stop me." Quatre thought another moment. Then out of the blue he screamed,

          "I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE WUFEI!!!!!!!!!" Everyone stared at him in shock. He ignored their surprise and called out 'Wufei' again and again, as loudly as he could. Wufei's eye twitched. He growled. Quatre didn't stop. He was determined to reach the real Wufei.

          "Stop this immediately!" Wufei snapped. Duo joined in.

          "HEY WUFFERS! COME OUT, COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE!" he yelled.

          "Stop! His mind has reverted to its most primitive instincts! You have no idea what you'll be unleashing!!" Quatre ceased his yelling momentarily.

          "So you admit that you _are controlling him?" he demanded. Wufei growled throatily. _

          "_Nobody controls ME!" Quatre didn't have time to realize that his plan had worked. Wufei lunged. His fangs buried themselves in the arm Quatre raised in defense. His __poisonous fangs…_

*What's going to happen to Quatre and Dr. J? Find out in the next chapter!*


	9. Crysalis

I don't know…this chapter seems to go by a little fast to me. But I like it anyway.

Virus

Continued

9. Chrysalis

          From the moment the organism had entered Wufei's body, it had been slowly taking over his mind by reducing it to its most primitive form. This way, it could have complete control over his body with little to no resistance. However, Quatre's actions had caused this plan to backfire and in turn, the plan had caused Quatre's actions to backfire also. Wufei's mind was now harder to suppress and in a way not a mind at all. He was essentially a wild animal. And he was doing everything he could to show it.

          "Quatre!" Trowa dove on Wufei. He was thrown to the side but it didn't matter; the damage had been done. Quatre stared at his bleeding arm in shock. He knew that there was poison coursing through his body now. He could already feel it. Wufei turned on Heero. Roaring with a feral anger he lunged at the Wing pilot, determined to bring his life to an end. Heero allowed himself to be pushed to his back, intending to use Wufei's momentum against him but he landed inside of something. He watched as Wufei struck again and again, trying to tear his throat out and not realizing that there was a barrier in between them. Wufei's fangs caught on something. He thrashed angrily for a moment, attempting to get loose. Finally he calmed down enough to refocus his eyes. Once he did, he was able to see the metal bars of the cage Heero had unwittingly crammed himself into. He was on top of it and it was tipped onto its back so that he was sitting on its door. Heero stared up at him suspiciously as he freed himself and settled back on his haunches.

          "Well, well, well. What have we here?" Wufei's voiced echoed inside Heero's head. Duo, who had snuck up behind Wufei, was sprawled out on the floor in a split second. Wufei licked Duo's blood off of his hand and grinned. Poison-laden saliva dripped from his teeth.

          "It seems you have trapped yourself, Heero." Heero glanced about himself. Wufei was right; he was in a cramped cage without even enough room for him to pull his gun out. He flattened himself against the back of the cage as Wufei leaned forward and sniffed the air inside of it. Every nerve in his body tingled as his mind registered the scent of fear. 

          "You're afraid…I can't believe it. The Perfect Soldier is _afraid…" Heero's eyes widened slightly. Wufei hooked his claws in the meshing. The smile faded from his face._

          "Do you know what fear does to me, Heero?" he asked in an almost drunken tone. "Fear makes me want to kill…" Wufei's fingers tensed and squeezed together. The metal bent easily. "I – want – to – _kill – you, Heero." Heero kicked out as hard as he could, breaking the cage door in the process. Wufei had jumped off as soon as he had moved, seemingly predicting his actions. He now held Heero's legs. Before he could do anything else, Heero was dragged from the cage and pinned to the floor. Immediately Wufei began mauling him once more. Grunting with effort, he fought against the abnormally strong Wufei and managed to raise his upper body away from him. Wufei's laughter reverberated through his mind._

          "Look at the pitiful human fighting for its life! Fight all you want, Heero. I _will kill you." He started to laugh again but was silenced suddenly. A choking noise escaped his throat followed by a strange gurgle. He stared straight ahead with wide eyes and a slack jaw. Heero could barely make out some sort of liquid oozing from his mouth. He felt Wufei's grip on him relaxing and he looked down to see why. Even in the dark the blood covered point of a sword could be seen protruding from Wufei's stomach. He had been stabbed with his own sword; a treacherous act indeed. His eyes rolled back and he fell onto his side revealing the bruised and shocked face of Quatre._

          "It was just laying there…I had to…" he panted. "I had to…" Heero picked himself up off of the floor and walked over to Quatre as he sank to his knees.

          "Let me see your arm." he ordered. Quatre squeezed his bleeding appendage but lifted it after a moment so that Heero could examine it. Quatre slowly raised his head to glance at Wufei. His eyes widened.

          "This looks bad…you'll need a bandage." Heero said finally. He looked down at Quatre. Quatre's eyes were growing by the second.

          "What?" Heero leaned into Quatre's line of vision. "Quatre?" As Quatre's mouth dropped open Heero turned around to see what he was staring at. He was met by an unbelievable sight. Wufei was standing a few feet away, balling and unballing his fists, oblivious to the way his claws tore into his own flesh. The sword was still fixed into his abdomen. A dangerously low growl shook his body.

          "_That…**hurt…" his voice hissed into their minds. He reached behind himself and yanked the blade out of his body. The wound healed instantly. Wufei advanced on them, and threw his sword off to the side. It clanged loudly against the floor then slid to a stop next to Duo. '**__Whoa!' Duo thought. '__He must really__ be out of it if he threw away his sword!' He dragged his body into a sitting position to get a better view of what was happening. On the other side of the room he saw Trowa using the wall to steady himself. Heero drew his gun quickly and held it out in front of him but he already knew that it wouldn't do him much good. Wufei stopped. His eyes widened._

          "Shoot me!" Heero blinked in both surprise and confusion at Wufei's words. '_What does he mean__ shoot him? It must be a trick…reverse psychology…' He held his gun steadily._

          "Shoot me! Shoot me now!" Heero hesitated, not sure of the consequences of taking that course of action. Quatre sensed that he was going to shoot. He pushed Heero's arm as he pulled the trigger, fouling the shot. Wufei narrowed his eyes and hissed at Quatre.

          "You fool!" He dropped to one knee. Everyone watched as he doubled over in pain then threw up. The dark puddle of slime spread under him. His stomach muscles contracted again, expelling more of the fluid on the floor. He collapsed into the puddle. The other pilots exchanged confused glances. A vine shot up from the puddle and latched onto the ceiling. Then another one did the same. It was followed by another vine…which was followed by even more vines until somewhat of a cage had formed around Wufei.

          "What's happening?" Quatre asked. The puddle solidified partially and started to rise. It was being pulled up by the vines and Wufei was going up with it. Heero narrowed his eyes in thought.

          "A cocoon…" he said after a moment. "He's…making a cocoon…" Quatre jumped in shock.

          "We have to stop it! We can't let him finish transforming!" Before Heero could stop him, Quatre had rushed forward and grabbed Wufei's wrist. He paid no attention to the stinging pain in his arm as he pulled Wufei, trying to remove him from the forming chrysalis. Seeing that Quatre wasn't succeeding, Trowa ran to him and grabbed him in an effort to help. Quatre's feet were lifted off of the floor. 

          "Hang on! I'm coming!" Duo called. He struggled to his feet and quickly joined the growing line. Heero followed suit a bit reluctantly but knowing that Wufei's transformation could not be allowed to complete itself. The four boys pulled on Wufei in a tug of war fashion. More and more vines formed and started to wrap themselves around Wufei's body until a sort of pod had formed. Only his arm remained exposed. The pod rose steadily higher until Trowa was on the verge of being lifted into the air also. Just as Quatre's hand started to slip, Wufei's hand suddenly grabbed his wrist. At first Quatre thought Wufei might be trying to pull him into the pod so he could kill him but he didn't feel any resistance. The only tension in Wufei's arm was that of the muscles he was using to hold onto Quatre. After a while his claws started to cut into Quatre's skin but Quatre ignored it and held on.

          "You have to pull harder!" he called over his shoulder. A slender vine snaked down Wufei's arm and to Quatre's arms. Its icy surface began numbing his arms immediately. Quatre fought to hold on. He noticed Wufei's grip weakening.

          "No, don't give up! Hold on, Wufei!" Quatre whispered. "Don't you let go!" Wufei's fingers loosened and finally let go. His hand fell limp. Quatre lost his grip on Wufei and fell to the floor bringing all the other pilots down with him. He watched helplessly as Wufei's hand was pulled into the pod to be transformed just like the rest of his body. Inside the pod, Wufei was flipped onto his back. He could feel liquid rising around him.

          "I…have to…get out…" he mumbled. Mustering up the last of his strength, he took a swipe at the side of the pod. His claws passed through the slimy substance as if it wasn't even there. The liquid splashed over his face as he let his hand fall, having spent all the energy that hadn't been taken from him. Delirium crept into his mind in the form of a sweet aroma and he tried to call out to the other pilots. The only things that came out of his mouth were animalistic grunts and noises. His eyes closed briefly as the liquid rose above his head. He found he could still breathe but only through his nose. When he opened his eyes he didn't see the nightmare around him. His vision was filled with a beautiful white light and he could barely make out a figure in the center of it. The dark haired girl reached out to him slowly. Her ponytails swayed gently in the wind.

          "Wufei…" she said. Her voice was faint but he could hear the love it carried. "Wufei…"

          "Wufei!" Quatre called. "Wufei!" Duo put a hand on his shoulder.

          "I don't think he can hear you, buddy." Quatre shrugged Duo's hand off of him.

          "You have to get out of there, Wufei! Can you hear me?! WUFEI!" Quatre's vision blurred. "Wu…fei…" He felt nothing as he hit the floor. The room spun for a moment then he was engulfed in darkness. Wufei smiled slightly at the vision the organism had created to calm him during the transformation. He allowed his eyelids to close in a slumber that would forever change his life. For when he emerged from that slumber, he would truly no longer be the human that he had been. He would be something great, something unstoppable; something deadly.

***

          Quatre blinked his eyes open. Everything was dark. He wondered for a moment if he had indeed opened his eyes. Then his pupils dilated and he could see somewhat better. Trowa's calm face entered his vision.

          "Are you okay?" he asked. "Can you hear me?" Quatre nodded. Trowa looked as though he might say something else but Duo pushed his way in and cut him off.

          "I tried to suck it out but I was too late. I'm sorry, Quatre." Quatre nodded a second time. He had already known that it was too late to remove the poison. The only hope for him now was an antidote. In the movies there was always an antidote, always some way to keep the character from dying. But this was real life and the real fact was that there wasn't an antidote. And he was going to die. He laughed in spite of himself. His biggest fear was that he would die on the battle field before they won, that he would never see what he was fighting for come true. Now he was going to die and not even fighting for what he believed in. His only consolation, if any, was that he would die helping a friend.

          "What did you try to suck out?" Heero asked. Duo turned to him.

          "Poison…he's been poisoned…" was Duo's short reply. Heero was silent a moment.

          "What poisoned him?" Duo blinked in confusion.

          "You don't know?" Heero shook his head.

          "Wufei's..." he hesitated, not sure how to continue. Then seeing there was no reason to beat around the bush he said, "Poisonous…" 

          "That's impossible." 

          "Hey, the fact that Wufei just made a _cocoon is impossible but it happened, didn't it?!" Heero couldn't come up with a good argument so he remained silent. A heavy quiet settled over the room. Finally Quatre could take it no longer._

          "What will we do now?" he asked the open air. "What _can we do?"_

          "What's gonna happen when that cocoon opens?" Duo inquired. There was another long silence. After a while, Heero spoke up.

          "His DNA is already altered. The cells with the new DNA have to spread and the ones with the old DNA have to die out in order for the transformation to be complete. When he exits the cocoon that's what will have happened." Quatre propped himself up on one elbow.

          "But if that's true, that means…there won't be any old DNA to replace the new DNA…" he stated, his voice barely above a whisper.

          "But…but that means…even if we get the organism out of him…" Duo's voice trailed off. Heero finished for him.

          "Even if we get it out, he won't return to normal."

          "Yes, that will happen – unless we can get some of his old DNA." Trowa said.

          "Where are we supposed to get _that? Last I heard nobody took any blood samples from Wufei. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if Dr. J had some lyin' around somewhere…" The other three pilots looked over at Duo._

          "What did you just say?" Quatre asked.

          "Well, at first I asked if -."

          "No, what was the last part?"

          "I said I wouldn't be surprised if Dr. J had some of Wufei's old blood lyin' around somewhere. Who knows? I mean, he had a _cow, there's no telling what else he's got here -."_

          "Heero, is there anywhere in this building that Dr. J might be keeping blood?" Heero nodded.

          "There's a whole cold storage section in the fourth floor basement of the southeast wing. He keeps blood, tissue samples and other things frozen down there."

          "Well…where are we right now?" Heero paused a moment to try to figure out their location.

          "Our current position is in a secondary chemical laboratory on the second floor basement of the northwest wing."

          "So how far is it from here to there?" Heero paused again.

          "If we could walk a straight line, it would be approximately two hundred yards."

          "Well, that's not so far…"

          "But he said that's if we could walk in a straight line which must mean we can't." Duo pointed out. 

          "What's the fastest route to that area?" Trowa asked. Heero thought for a moment then got up and started opening and closing drawers and cabinets.

          "What are you looking for?" Quatre inquired. Heero walked to a table in the center of the room with a long, rolled up piece of paper.

          "This…they're blueprints of the building. We can map a route to the cold storage area with them." he replied as he spread the paper over the table. Quatre sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the table he had been lying on. He winced and withdrew his arm as he tried to push off. It was his right arm that had been bitten, the arm he had lifted to defend himself against Wufei's attack since it was the stronger of the two. It had already begun to swell but the swelling had not reached his elbow or spread to his hand – yet… Trowa helped him to the table with the blueprints on it and the four boys plotted a course. When they had finished, they made preparations to set off. They equipped themselves with fresh flashlights, a first aid kit and a few army rations with a lighter and matches. At last they were ready to go. Duo voiced a question that had been bothering him for some time.

          "What if Wufei's blood _isn't there?" The other pilots glared at him. "Sorry…but we have to consider that. And besides, even if Wufei's blood __is over there, we'd still have to get that thing out of him before we could use it."_

          "He's right…we still don't have a way to get the organism out of his body." Quatre said.

          "Wufei…or that thing said that Dr. J's only been lookin' at ways to keep it _in Wufei's body so I doubt that there's even a beginning of something that would get it out." Heero shook his head at Duo's comment._

          "Dr. J isn't careless. He would consider the possibility of him needing to remove the organism so he would've at least started to create a serum for that…but…"

          "But what?" Quatre prodded.

          "He thought we were dealing with a virus. It would take different and much stronger antibodies to combat a multi-cellular organism. It would actually take some kind of…poison."

          "So now we don't have to make a whole new serum to fight the organism. We just need the right poison." Trowa pointed out.

          "Yeah, that's good, isn't it? It sounds a lot easier…"

          "We don't have time to experiment and find out what poisons it's susceptible to."

          "That's not important right now." Quatre broke in. "Right now we just need to get that blood sample." He started to take a step forward but his legs gave out on him. Trowa caught him before he hit the floor.

          "I…I guess I'm still a little dizzy…"

          "Don't take this personally Quatre but we'll never get anywhere if you keep falling like that." Duo said.

          "Well…what are you going to do, carry me?" Quatre chuckled lightly and tried to stand up again.

          "That's _exactly what we'll do." Heero said. Everyone's attention turned to him. Heero walked over to a large cabinet and pulled out a strange looking backpack. He yanked the sack out and tossed it to the side, bringing only the straps and frame back with him._

          "What's that thing?" Quatre asked.

          "It's a harness. We'll use it to hold you to our backs one at a time. Get in." He helped Quatre slide into the straps and simple metal frame.

          "I'll take him first." Trowa volunteered. When at last Quatre had been strapped to Trowa's back, he shivered.

          "I'm cold…" he mumbled.

          "Maybe it's the poison." Duo suggested. Heero shook his head.

          "The temperature has dropped severely."

          "I wonder what's causing it." Duo turned around as Quatre spoke. His eyes widened in surprise.

          "Well I don't know but…is there any chance it could be…_that?" The others turned to look at what Duo was looking at. The area of the ceiling around the central vine of the cocoon was covered in frost and the frost was spreading to the walls quickly. Despite this, thick drops of slime were still dripping from the pod._

          "How could it be so cold and not freeze?" Quatre wondered aloud. No one knew the answer to his question.

          "Dr. J estimated that the transformation would be complete at ten. Quatre, set your watch alarm for ten." Quatre tore his eyes away from the cocoon to follow Heero's instructions. He glanced down at his watch and felt his stomach sink.

          "Oh, I don't think there's any reason for that." he murmured.

          "Why not?"

          "Because it's ten o clock right now." A strange crunching sound made everyone whip back around to look at the cocoon. What they saw was the last thing they wanted to see at that moment; the pod was opening.

*Bum, bum, BUM! Oh no! How will the boys make it to the other side of the lab with Wufei chasing them? And what does Wufei look like now? And what's so important about the ceiling freezing? Tune in next time to find out! And don't forget to review – if you can. Hey, are you starting to get some of those 4+5 vibes? (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)*


	10. Prey

Virus

Continued

10. Prey

          By this time all four of the pilots' eyes had adjusted to the darkness enough to be able to see what happened without the aid of their flashlights. A long seem formed down the front of the pod then split open. Dark liquid gushed out onto the floor and a figure fell with it. But before any of them could see what it was the pod unlatched from the ceiling and fell on top of it.

          "Somebody should go check it out…" Quatre whispered. Of course, nobody _wanted to go examine the broken chrysalis, but Quatre was right; it was necessary for someone to do so. Heero decided that he would be the one to check the mess for signs of life. He walked purposefully toward the pile of goop and ooze and leaned forward. Not being able to see anything, he reached out a hand to try to move some of the slimy stuff out of the way. It melted at his touch and slid into the puddle already formed on the floor. Once all of it had fallen away, Wufei was right in front of him, kneeling on one knee and balancing himself with one hand. His head was lowered and remained that way even after Heero's slightly surprised gasp. Heero backed away, rather quickly in some of the other pilots' opinions. When he had gotten a few feet away, he noticed that Wufei was completely naked. The way he was partially curled up, however, he couldn't see anything compromising. The puddle of dark fluid began to engulf Wufei's body and he stood slowly. As he reached a complete standing position, only his arms, neck and head remained uncovered. He tilted his head back and inhaled deeply. The slime dropped to the floor leaving his perfectly clean clothes behind. Letting out the breath he had taken, he brought his head back down. He breathed through his mouth and they could see that he now had fangs on the bottom row of his teeth but they were shorter than those on the top row. Both pairs of his eyelids snapped open without warning. Heero backed all the way up to where the rest of the pilots were. A slender, forked tongue flicked out of Wufei's mouth briefly._

          "Wu-Wufei?" Quatre ventured. Wufei's yellow-green eyes moved smoothly from Heero to Quatre. His voice echoed eerily through Quatre's mind.

          "_I am not the creature trying to take over this body." Wufei said. His telepathic voice was slow and clear but still had a hint of instability in it. "__But I will not allow you to call me by that name." He looked away and up at the ceiling. Dr. J was still attached to it and still unconscious._

          "But it's _your name, why can't we call you by it?" Quatre demanded. Wufei didn't glance back down at Quatre as he spoke. He continued to stare at Dr.  J._

          "_That was__ my name, when I was human. But that person is gone. There is no Wufei anymore. There remains only me, a nameless creature destined to destroy humanity." A small, snake-like hiss sounded from within him as his tongue flicked out once again._

          "You don't want to destroy humanity! That's that thing's goal, not yours! You're letting it control you, Wufei!" Wufei shook his head then turned back to Quatre.

          "_No, I am in full control of my body and mind now. I have decided to carry out the organism's plan for reasons of my own, reasons you would not understand." Quatre opened his mouth to argue but he stopped himself. After a moment of deep contemplation, he spoke. His voice was soft and neither accusing nor questioning._

          "You loved her, didn't you?" he said. Wufei's head snapped to attention. His golden eyes burned holes into Quatre but he said nothing.

          "Yeah, you loved her and they took her from you. I know you want them to pay for it, but this isn't the way."

          "_Shut up, human! You have no right to speak of that! You have no idea how I feel! How could you possibly__ know!?" _

          "I know how you feel, Wufei. I know how you feel because I can feel it too. I can feel the pain inside of you and that thing in your body. Both of you are being blinded by your rage. You think the only solution to your problems is to kill. But what will that do for you? That won't bring your wife back. That won't bring the organism's mate back. That won't solve anything." Wufei was now shaking visibly. His hair was still down and it swayed slightly from his movement as he took a step forward. He pointed a trembling clawed finger at Quatre.

          "_Just for that," he hissed. "__YOU will die FIRST!!" He charged at Quatre. Trowa, who had been standing sideways so that both he and Quatre could see, now turned all the way to the front, putting himself between Quatre and Wufei. Wufei stopped short._

          "_Move or die!" he snarled. Trowa stood firmly where he was. Seeing that Trowa wasn't going to let him get to Quatre, Wufei drew back his arm and splayed his claws. Someone caught hold of his arm. Before his could see who it was, he found himself on his back. The culprit stepped forward. Wufei narrowed his eyes and hissed._

          "_Yui…I should have known…" He leaned back then jerked his legs forward, yanking himself into a standing position. "__You're no match for me, Heero. I advise you to back down." Heero stayed where he was. A smirk crossed Wufei's face. "__Fine by me…" He moved with unfathomable speed. The other pilots watched as Heero sank to his knees and Wufei moved his fist away from his stomach. Heero was violently ill. After wiping some excess regurgitation from the side of his mouth, he lifted up the bottom of his shirt and examined his stomach. It had already begun to bruise. Shooting an enraged glare in Wufei's direction, he picked himself up off the floor._

          "_Still want more, do you?" Wufei asked in mock surprise. "__Well don't worry, there's plenty more where that came from." Heero punched with his right arm. Wufei's left arm blocked quickly and was followed by a sharp uppercut from his right. Heero stumbled back a few steps then steadied himself. He pulled out his gun. Wufei moved in a blur. He kicked the gun out of Heero's hand, punched him hard enough to spin him around, grabbed his arm then caught the gun in his other hand and pushed him to the floor with his foot. He finished off by pressing the gun barrel to the back of Heero's head. Heero lay face down on the floor with his right arm stretched behind his back, still in Wufei's grip._

          "_Well, I wanted to kill Quatre first. But killing you first is just as good." Heero heard Wufei pull the hammer back._

          "It's empty…" he panted. Wufei pulled the trigger and Heero rolled over, nearly crushing his arm beneath his back but dragging Wufei to the floor at the same time. He clasped his hands together and hit Wufei over the head. While Wufei was down, he scrambled to his feet and ran back to the other pilots. Duo started to say something but he cut him off.

          "Run." he ordered. Duo and Trowa followed after Heero and Quatre, who had no choice in the matter, watched Wufei getting up.

          "Hey, Heero, if you knew that gun was empty, why did you take it out?" Duo asked.

          "I didn't know it was empty until I took it out. He kicked it away before I could put it back." 

          "Um Trowa, can you run any faster?" Quatre asked.

          "Yes, why?"

          "Because you need to run faster!" Quatre watched in horror as frost formed in the whole hallway. Wufei was right behind them. Then Quatre remembered something. He had asked Dr. J why he could hear water dripping in that area. The answer had been that this area of the building was under a lake. The water pipes had already ruptured because of the pressure. Should they freeze, they would burst completely. The whole foundation of that area would collapse. And that's exactly what happened. Jet streams of water shot into the corridor. Wufei jumped to avoid one but never came back down. Quatre waved his flashlight wildly, trying to locate him. Trowa halted suddenly.

          "What's going on?! I can't see!" Quatre cried, trying to turn enough to get a glimpse of what had made the other pilots stop. Wufei was hanging upside down from the ceiling. He glanced up sharply as a loud crack sounded from it. Quatre and the other pilots stared at the floor as huge fissures spread around them.

          "The whole floor is gonna collapse!" Quatre shouted. They started moving again but they weren't fast enough. The floor gave out beneath them and they fell. Wufei watched them fall for a moment before curling back up to the ceiling and high-tailing it to safety. The floor below them was already flooded so they didn't have a hard or painful landing. Their heads broke the surface violently and their gasping could be heard. Brick fragments and other debris plunked into the water all around them.

          "The ceiling's coming down, too!" Duo yelled. The ceiling of the floor they had just come from splintered and dropped. They ducked below the water and swam as far down as they could, hoping the dense liquid would slow the fragments enough to keep them from being hit. After everything had fallen the pilots rose to the surface.

          "Are you okay, Quatre?" Trowa asked. Quatre pulled his damp hair out of his face.

          "Uh…yeah, I'm…I'm okay…"he replied shakily.

          "Don't get too comfortable," Heero warned. "Once all of that sinks to the bottom, the weight will break the floor."

          "You mean we have to fall through _another floor!?!" Duo demanded. Heero had no time to respond. The floor split open and they were sucked down into the opening along with all the wall and ceiling fragments. That time, they had to struggle to get back to the top of the water._

          "PLEASE don't tell me we have to do that _again!!" Duo cried. Heero shook his head._

          "This is the bottom floor. There's nothing below here but dirt and metal." Duo let out an exaggerated sigh of relief. 

          "Well…I guess we're on the right floor now. All we have to do is go straight forward to get to the cold storage area." Quatre smiled weakly at his statement. Then his head dropped forward into the water.

          "Whoa, Quatre, stay with us!" Duo swam over to Quatre and yanked his head up by his hair. Quatre's eyes snapped open in surprise then closed again partially.

          "What, I wasn't asleep, I was just resting my eyes!" he cried. Duo tapped his cheek repeatedly, trying to get him fully awake.

          "Wake up buddy, we're on our way, you can make it. Can you hear me, Quatre?"

          "I'm awake, I'm awake! I'm just so…cold…it's so cold…" Duo felt his forehead.

          "He's burning up…I don't know if he's gonna make it…"

          "Of course he'll make it." Trowa said.

          "I hope you're right."

          "We have to keep moving." Heero mumbled. He pushed off of some near by debris and dog paddled for the far side of the room. They all saw him go. The bottom floor had been completely lit to prevent Wufei from tunneling out if he was capable of that. The entire top floor had also been lit to prevent him from getting out the main entrance and all the walls separating the lab from the outside had also been lit. Fortunately for them, most of the lights on the bottom floor were water proof since that floor was beneath a lake and so were not affected by the flood. Thus, they now had more or less decent light to see by and weren't so vulnerable. When all of them had reached the far wall, Heero pulled out the blueprints. They were fine because they were laminated. Quatre stared in the direction they had come from instead of looking at the map. His eyes widened as he remembered that Dr. J had been stuck to the ceiling.

          "What about Dr. J?" he cried. The other pilots looked up from the blueprints. "He was stuck! What if he got crushed under the ceiling?! What if he's drowning?!"

          "The ceiling where he was didn't fall." Heero reassured him.

          "How do you know that for sure?! We have to go back!" Quatre started splashing around violently, trying to swim back to the room Dr. J had been in. He didn't even realize that they were two floors below that room. Duo swam around Trowa to stop Quatre from thrashing and making noise.

          "Quatre, stop!" he yelled. Quatre struggled harder. Duo grabbed his arms. "Quatre, snap out of it!" Quatre ceased his movements. He squinted at Duo.

          "Duo…is that you?" Duo backed away slightly.

          "Heero, what's _wrong with him?" he asked. Heero grunted and pulled out the first aid kit. He took out a tiny flashlight and swam towards Quatre. Tilting Quatre's head upward, he shined the light into his eyes one at a time._

          "His pupils aren't closing all the way. Something's wrong with his brain." Quatre tried to push Heero away.

          "There's…nothing wrong…with my brain…Heero, I'm perfectly fine."

          "The poison is making him delirious." 

          "I am not delirious! I'm…just concerned…Dr. J…and…I'm cold… I'm so cold…cold…so…cold…" Quatre passed out a third time.

          "We have to go underwater to get to the next room and he has to be able to hold his breath." Heero said. "Wake him up, Duo."

          "Who died and made _you king?" Duo mumbled. A loud hiss echoed around them._

          "Wake him up _now, Duo!" Duo splashed water on Quatre's face until he stirred._

          "What's going on?" he murmured.

          "Hold your breath, Quatre." Trowa ordered.

          "Trowa…I can't see you…" A piece of brick plunked into the water nearby.

          "Hold your breath!" Quatre blinked slowly. His head rolled from side to side. In the far corner on the other side of the room a figure moved in the shadows. Another hiss bounced off the walls. In a desperate attempt to wake Quatre up, Duo pinched both Quatre's mouth and nose closed. Quatre snorted and choked and Duo released him.

          "Duo, what are you doing?!" he demanded.

          "Take a deep breath buddy!" Quatre did so and before he could let it out again Duo pushed both him and Trowa underwater. Although a little surprised, Trowa started swimming immediately. Heero led the way to the submerged door. None of them heard the tiny splash on the water's surface. None of them saw the creature swimming after them with incredible speed. Not even Quatre, since he had closed his eyes. Once they were all through the door, Heero closed and locked it.

          "Do you think that'll hold him off?" Duo panted.

          "Not for long…" They continued on to the next room. This room was fairly bigger and not as well lit as the last two. Debris as well as office supplies floated haphazardly in the water. Duo and Heero climbed onto a desk. Duo slumped onto his back with an exhausted sigh while Heero started examining the map again. Trowa pulled himself and Quatre onto a door that had fallen from the previous level. Glancing up, Trowa could see a rim of the floor above that hadn't fallen. Even higher was the floor they had been on. It too had a rim of material that had been too steady and too strong to fall. There was a door positioned in the left wall, the wall they had just passed through themselves. But the door they had come through was near the back wall. He wondered if Wufei could get to them through that door. They had locked all the doors on this level in hopes that without proper leverage Wufei wouldn't be able to break them. But all he would need to do was climb the wall to get back on the level above them and he could walk right through that door…

          "He's close…" Quatre whispered. The sound of Quatre's voice tore Trowa from his thoughts. "He's coming for us…he's very close…"

          "Focus, Quatre. Stay with me."

          "I…I can _feel it, Trowa. I can…I can __feel his hunger…his thirst for blood…I can feel all of it…"_

          "Is there anything we can give him, Heero?" Trowa called. Heero gave him a slightly annoyed glance then stopped looking at the blueprints to fish around in his sack. Not finding what he was searching for, he set everything aside and dove back into the water. He came up near Trowa.

          "Here," he said, handing Trowa a bottle of pills. "They're caffeine pills. They'll make him more aware." With that he swam back to the desk and resumed his examination. Trowa slipped his arms out of the harness straps and slid around to Quatre's front.

          "He's hunting us, Trowa…" A smile spread across his face. "We're his prey…" Trowa opened the bottle and took out a pill.

          "Open your mouth." Quatre tilted his head back and closed his eyes. He inhaled deeply. "Come on Quatre, you need this." An almost inaudible clicking sound reached his ears. He jerked his head up to see the door knob on the floor above turning. Quatre lowered his head. His eyes snapped open. His voice whispered into Trowa's mind.

          "_He's here." Trowa jumped slightly. There was splashing all around him._

          "He's here, Trowa!" Duo repeated. Trowa tried to gather his thoughts as he watched Duo and Heero swimming past him into the shadows. After glancing down at Quatre one last time, he slipped back into the harness straps and pushed off into the water. He followed Heero and Duo behind some shelves that still held enough equipment to hold it to the floor. Fortunately, it was so tall that it stuck out of the water, nearly reaching the area where the ceiling would have been. The door opened and Wufei stepped calmly through it. He stood still for a moment, scanning the room below him. Then he started to walk along the ridge of remaining floor. The water gave off an eerie glow because of the lights under it. The bluish light shone on Wufei and cast a shadow on the wall behind him as he moved. The shadow was huge and tentacles waved from it in every direction. Its gigantic, reptilian head matched Wufei's as he swept the flooded room with his gaze.

          "_Hello?" he called. His voice echoed around them since it wasn't directed at them. "__Is anyone there?" He laughed quietly. "__I know you're here. I can smell your blood. I can hear your hearts beating." His eyes locked with Heero's. "__I can see__ you…" Heero didn't move. The others followed his example. Wufei dropped off the ledge and caught it with one hand._

          "_Haven't you ever heard…" he began, swinging toward the wall. His feet stuck to it. "…__that if a wild animal chases you…" He released the ledge and let his upper body fall. He stopped himself from slamming into the wall with his hands which also stuck. "__…you shouldn't run…" They watched him climb slowly down the wall and stop just above the water's surface. He smiled in their direction, showing off glistening fangs, and then dropped into the water. Even though the water was slightly lit, they couldn't see him. There was a huge spray of water as he broke the surface right in front of them. _

          "_You should play dead!" Using the wall as leverage, they pushed the shelves over onto Wufei, pinning him momentarily._

          "I'll hold him off. You three keep going." Heero said.

          "Are you _crazy?! You can't hold him off by yourself! And you've got all the supplies!" Heero took off the pack and threw it to Duo._

          "Go." he ordered. Duo shot a resentful glare at Heero. Trowa started for the door and he followed. Heero dove under the water. The first thing he saw was the top of the shelves. It was ripped and bent in a way he didn't think was humanly possible. A flickering light caught his attention. Upon glancing at it, he laid eyes on Wufei. The light went off and all he could see was Wufei's figure floating peacefully in the water. He was upright with his arms partially spread to the sides and his legs hanging lifelessly below him. His head was lowered. Then all at once the light came back on and Heero could see the innumerable amount of tentacles swirling around him. He looked almost angelic in the light as he threw his head back and spread his tentacles out in an enormous gray halo. Time seemed to slow down for Heero as Wufei attacked. Wufei's tentacles thrust backward, propelling him forward. He wasn't sure if it was his own thought or if Wufei said it but he heard a voice in his head whisper,

          "_The hunter becomes the hunted…prey…" _


	11. Delirious

Virus

Continued

11. Delirious

          Duo, Trowa and Quatre made their way through the water to the door. A huge wave washed over them, dragging them underwater for a moment. When they got back to the surface they turned around to see what had caused it. At first they thought they saw Wufei and Heero just floating in the air. The light was still on the fritz and the room was temporarily dark. It flickered on suddenly and the tentacles holding the two boys up became visible. Heero was fighting against the slimy things wrapped around his body and Wufei was simply hanging there watching as the seemingly independent vines choked the life out of his former ally. 

          "Trowa…" Quatre panted. "Make it stop…please, make it stop!" Duo looked away from Wufei and Heero and glanced at Quatre.

          "I guess that poison's really getting to him…" he mumbled. Trowa remembered the caffeine pills that Heero had given him. He searched his pockets and found nothing. He had left it on the door. There was nothing he could do for Quatre. Nothing… Quatre threw his head back and cried out in pain at the same time Wufei did. Heero had bitten one of the tentacles. The wounded appendage pulled away from Heero freeing his arms. He pulled out a scalpel that he'd snuck out of the chemical lab and stabbed it into another tentacle. Wufei growled as black puddles of his blood formed in the water. The wounds healed quickly but the pain lingered. Sending more snake-like tentacles Heero's way, he spoke. Quatre's head tilted back and his eyes widened. Staring absently forward, he voiced every word that Wufei said.

          "_There is no use in fighting. You will__ die. If you give up now it will be much easier on you. All humans will be killed off eventually." Heero's body was being enveloped in thick gray tentacles. In a last effort to get free he threw the scalpel at Wufei. The blade planted itself in the middle of his forehead. There was frantic splashing behind Trowa as a violent tremor spread through Quatre's body. As he turned his head to examine the shaking boy strapped to his back he missed the trembling that rippled through Wufei's body and all the tentacles right before his eyes rolled back and he went limp. There was a loud splash as he fell into the water. Heero pushed his way through the lifeless vines and over to where the other pilots were._

          "He's not going to be unconscious for long. We better go now." he said. 

***

          They continued on their journey through the flooded area of the lab, going through door after door as quickly as they could. After a while their limbs were too fatigued to go on. They stopped to rest in a room that appeared to be red because of the crimson light submerged in the water. It was almost as if they were swimming in a large vat of blood. Quatre lifted his head slowly. It was his first movement since the seizure he'd had. A soft hiss echoed around them. Trowa and Heero tensed immediately. Quatre chuckled lightly.

          "That wasn't Wufei…" Duo said. Heero turned to him.

          "Then who was it?" he demanded.

          "You're not gonna believe this but…it was Quatre…" Heero stared at Duo for a moment, trying to make sense out of what he'd just said. Quatre's voice grabbed his attention.

          "Kill them…kill the humans…kill them all…" He hissed again after saying this. Trowa let himself out of the harness straps and turned Quatre around. His head rolled loosely.

          "Quatre…" Trowa lifted Quatre's head by his chin. He withdrew his hand almost immediately. Glancing down at it, he saw glistening red blood running down his arm. Quatre had bitten his finger. Quatre fell on his back laughing. He licked the blood from around his mouth.

          "Man, he's _really losin' it…"_

          "Heero, are you _sure there's nothing else we can give him?"_

          "There are a few snake venom antidotes in the building. But all of them are near the cold storage area. We're almost there. If he can make it there, we can give him some of those." A soft thump caught his attention. He looked around, trying to find the source of the noise. Another thump reached his ears, louder than the one before it.

          "Do you hear that?" Duo and Trowa strained their ears. Yet another, louder thump sounded.

          "What is that?" Duo asked. The next time they heard it, it had a more distinct sound to it. It was more like a clang than a thump. They waited and the sound came again, this time followed by splashing. Finally they realized what was making the sound and they prepared to leave. Trowa tried to flip Quatre over so he could put the harness back on but Quatre wouldn't let him. The clanging and splashing was getting closer; they didn't have much time.

          "Quatre…" Trowa pleaded. Quatre laughed at him and batted his hands away.

"Trowa get him and come on!" Heero growled from across the room. All out of ideas, Trowa simply tilted the piece of wood Quatre had been laying on, dumping him into the water. Before Quatre could swim away, he grabbed the harness and strapped himself in. As he made his way to the next door the one they had previously come through frosted over. Just as he reached Heero and Duo, the door flew off its hinges and landed in the water not too far from them. Ice spread through the doorway and up the walls. Ducking slightly, Wufei walked in, standing on top of the ice. He smirked at them.

          "_Well…I have to admit that you had me a little worried, Yui. For a minute I didn't think I'd survive that one."  The water was freezing quickly; they had to move or they would be stuck. Heero opened the door and started to go through but something caught him and pulled him back. He pulled and scratched at the tentacle around his throat._

          "Heero! Hang on I'll -!" Duo began. Heero cut him off.

          "No! You have to keep going!" The appendage tightened, silencing any further words. He felt the slimy things wrap around his legs and soon he found himself hanging upside down in front of Wufei.

          "_You know what's funny, Heero?" Wufei asked. The tentacle around Heero's neck moved away. "__I can breathe underwater. But you can't." Without warning Heero's head was dunked into the water. Unwittingly he swallowed a good deal of it. He gasped for air as he was lifted out again._

          "_Refreshing, isn't it? Here, have some more." Once again Heero dropped into the water and this time he was pulled back and forth. More water disappeared down his throat. This time he came up choking. Duo realized that Heero couldn't do anything to get free and took action. He fumbled around in Heero's pack until his hand closed on what felt like a gun. He pulled it out and examined it._

          "What's this? A waterproof flare gun? I didn't know they made these…" He unscrewed the cap that was over the open end of the barrel and took aim. '_Here goes…' He pulled the trigger and the flare zoomed toward its target. It seemed as though the flare might actually hit but a slick and rapid tentacle caught it and dunked it into the water, putting it out. Duo cursed under his breath. Wufei turned to glare in his direction and while he was distracted his tentacles loosened enough for Heero to pull free. Heero dove as deep as he could so Wufei wouldn't be able to see him. Tentacles chased him almost to the bottom of the flooded room. He swam to the door. As he neared it he could see the other pilots slipping through into the next room. Too late Wufei realized what had happened and sent a swarm of rope like appendages after them. Trowa and Duo slammed the door closed on a couple of them, cutting the tips off. They watched the things melt and slide back through the crack below the door. On the other side a furious roar erupted. Duo swam over to Heero._

          "Are you okay?" he asked. Heero glared at him then pushed his head underwater. Trowa watched Duo resurface, looking a little shaken and angry, then turned his gaze toward Heero who was moving in the direction of a small staircase. It was then that he realized they weren't in another room but a large hallway instead. The stairs were mostly below water but the very top ones were still dry. They followed Heero up the stairs down them again, as they didn't stop on a floor, they just descended again. They found themselves in a brightly lit room. Everywhere there were cold storage tanks and huge glass containers that appeared to have a blue glow about them. A sign near the door read, 'Cold Storage, SE, 4B'.

***

          Wufei tilted his head upward as the last of his new tentacles disappeared into his back. He sat down on the ice to think of a way to kill the other pilots. Sucking on a fang he sifted through various painful methods of killing people. His stomach growled, interrupting his thoughts. '_I need to eat...' Dr. J crossed his mind. He had instinctively put Dr. J near where he would 'hatch' specifically so he could eat him when he did. But Dr. J was old and only had one arm, technically. That wasn't even the worst thing about him…no, he wouldn't be a suitable meal. But that wouldn't stop him from killing the old man. '****__All humans must die…' Wufei answered the voice that had been guiding him.  
          "__Yes, that's right, all humans must die."_

          "**_Show no mercy…"_**

          "_No, I won't show any mercy."_

          "**_They didn't show your wife any mercy…"_**

          "_That's right and that's why they have to die." He sat there for a long while just answering a voice that no one but him could hear. Even though it was the creature inhabiting his body trying to manipulate him, he was convinced that it was all just his own thoughts, that he had complete control. He had re-taken control of his body but his mind was still following the alien's instructions. After a moment he got up and walked over to a frosted wall._

          "_They have to be killed now." he said as he started to climb up the frozen surface of the wall._

          In the cold storage room the search for Wufei's blood had begun. Duo opened a cabinet and stuck his head inside.

          "HEY!" he exclaimed. He reached in and pulled out a full bottle of brandy. "Look what I found!" The others glanced over. "I guess Dr. J isn't as boring as we thought."

          "Baka, that's surgical brandy. They use that for small surgeries when anesthesia would be too strong. "

          "What's the difference?" Duo unscrewed the cap. "I don't want any lectures about under age drinking or hangovers." After stating that he tilted his head back and lifted the bottle. Heero thought about what Duo had said for a moment. Hangovers…those were caused by dehydration. Alcohol evaporates water in the brain and body when consumed. What was it about that fact that was bothering him? Something…his mind was trying to think of _something… '__Wait, could that be it?'_

          "Stop." Heero ordered. Duo looked over at Heero, the bottle just inches away from his face.

          "I already told you I don't want any lectures."

          "Remember how Wufei drank so much water?"

          "Yes. What about it?" It finally dawned on Heero.

          "That thing inside of him is water based." He said. Duo lowered the bottle.

          "What does that have to do with me and my drink? Because I still don't see any reason I shouldn't have it." Heero ignored Duo briefly. '_That has to be the reason Wufei is craving so much water. Humans are over 60% water but that must not be enough for it to survive on. If there was even less water…it would probably die…It wouldn't let itself just die it would…'_

          "…it would want to get out." Heero mumbled.

          "What was that?" Duo asked. Without warning Heero snatched the bottle and cap from Duo. "Hey, give it back!"

          "We can use this to get the organism out of Wufei." Heero told him. Before Duo could argue further, Trowa spoke up.

          "I found it." he said. Duo and Heero walked over to where he was standing. Quatre looked in their direction from the chair he was tied to, not really understanding the importance of what Trowa had said but just wondering why they were all gathering. Duo let his eyes wander from the vial labeled Chang, Wufei to the other vials in the drawer-like freezer until he came across one that said Maxwell, Duo.

          "Hey, he has my blood too!" He reached in and grabbed it. Heero picked up a vile labeled Yui, Heero. He unconsciously narrowed his eyes slightly. It wasn't labeled with his real name…

          "He has blood from all of us." Trowa stated. He showed Duo his own vial of blood then pulled out Quatre's. Duo frowned.

          "If we get outta this I'm gonna have a long talk with him. How could he possibly have blood from _all of us!?!" Trowa shrugged then closed the freezer as soon as the other vials were replaced. Heero held up the blood and examined it. It was still frozen. He had no idea how to unfreeze it properly. That and getting it back into Wufei would have to be a task left up to Dr. J. But at least they knew there was hope of restoring Wufei to himself. They had the cure and they had the poison to get the organism out of his body. Now…_

          "We need some kinda plan." Duo said. Quatre spoke up from his chair.

          "Heero…you said that thing wasn't a virus…you said it was a living creature…" he panted. "You were wrong…it _is a virus. It came to survive and reproduce by wiping out another species…isn't that what viruses do? Well isn't that what they do!?!" The other three boys stared at Quatre in shock as he slumped over, unconscious._

          With great effort Wufei pulled himself onto the next floor. He collapsed, panting.

          "_Thirsty…" His telepathic voice bounced off of the walls around him as he wondered why he was so thirsty. He pulled his arm up and reached out to drag himself forward. It fell again before he had even gotten it past his head. Determined to get to the other four pilots, he let out his tentacles and used them to pick himself up onto his feet. Immediately afterwards he stumbled back a few steps. He lifted his hand to his face and tried to produce some more of the slime. A thin layer came out then was sucked back in. So he had found the cause of his problem. He had been using all his bodily fluids to create the slime and had now run out. Letting out an impatient growl he started forward dizzily, in search of a water source._

          "But why do _I have to be the bait?!" Duo demanded. Heero simply glared at the angry American. He had no intention of explaining but the reason was that Wufei would suspect something if either he or Trowa were found just wandering somewhere. It would be the same if they just left Quatre somewhere; he was wounded so there was no way they'd just leave him behind. Of course, having Duo just wander aimlessly would arouse some suspicion but they were hoping that Wufei would just figure Duo got separated from the group while messing around. So they had formed a plan and were ready to put it into action. All Duo had to do was lure Wufei to the area they needed him in and distract him long enough for them to jump on him and force him to drink the brandy. After that they would need to tranquilize him and tie him down in the room they had set up. That was the hard part. The easy part would be retrieving Dr. J and getting him to replace the blood. Or so they hoped…_

          "Alright, alright, I'm going…" Duo glanced at his watch. It was 11:22pm. He stepped out into the dark hallway and tripped over a pile of rubbish that he hadn't seen. On the floor directly above him Wufei froze and strained his ears to catch another sound. Duo stood as still as a statue. After a minute he started to move again, wincing every time his foot caught on something and dragged it across the floor. Finally he made it clear of all the debris and continued down the hall.

          "Hello?!" he yelled as part of the rouse. "Can anybody hear me?! Hey, you guys, where are you?!" Wufei turned slowly as he zeroed in on Duo's location. His forked tongue lashed out briefly as he smiled. At least now if he had to be thirsty, he wouldn't be hungry.

          Duo rounded a corner and came to an area without a ceiling. There were a few stairs leading down into the water which had obviously destroyed the ceiling. '_Well, I'm already wet I might as well…' He walked down into the water and splashed around a little._

          "Geez, you'd think he would've found me by now…" With a shrug he turned to get back out of the water.

          "_Yes, you would think so, wouldn't you?" Wufei grinned at Duo. His fangs glinted in the bluish light of the water. In a flurry of water Duo scrambled back and out of the water. Without wasting a moment he took off around the edge of the water and back down the hall he'd come from. As soon as he entered said hallway however, he was stopped by a sharp yank on his head. His feet flew out from under him and he fell. The impact winded him slightly. Wufei stood over him, holding the end of his braid._

          "_The good thing about humans," he began, picking Duo up by his shirt front. "…__is that they're really slow…"_

          "HELP!!" Duo screamed. Wufei spun him around and seized him by the throat.

          "_You and I both know that no one can hear you." Grasping desperately at Wufei's hand Duo tried to think of a way to get free. He did the only thing he could think of. His leg swung forward and it hit its mark. Wufei didn't even glance down. His smile only grew. Duo found it impossible that Wufei hadn't doubled over in pain. But due to the drug like chemical imbalance in Wufei's brain, pain no longer registered the correct way. So he decided to just knock Wufei over. He lashed out with his foot again, this time catching Wufei in his stomach. Wufei chuckled lightly. '__Oh come on, this isn't fair!' Duo thought. He pushed against Wufei with his foot again and again but didn't even manage to make him lean back. Wufei's tongue flicked out, almost grazing Duo's face._

          "_This is the end for you, human." Wufei's tongue flicked out a second time. Duo seized it._

          "Cat's got your tongue!!" he cried as Wufei released him in surprise. He pulled it out further then let it go. As it snapped back into Wufei's mouth he bolted down the hallway. Wufei roared in anger. Just as Duo reached the corner he heard a sickening crunch. '_I know I'm gonna regret this but I have to see…' Hesitantly he turned to see the cause of the noise. Wufei was bent over slightly and every where there would have been a vertebra on his back a slimy black spike was protruding from his shirt. They all curved downward but he could clearly see their sharp points._

          "Oh no way…there is _no way…" Duo backed away, shaking his head._

          "_Now you're finished!" With another loud crunching sound Wufei's spine extended into a tail. The bone was quickly wrapped with flesh and tissue. Duo watched in fear as Wufei began to grow. Tentacles spread all around his changing body. As his skin began to take on a slick texture and a gray color Duo decided it was time to run which he promptly did. Wufei's head and back grazed the ceiling which was actually pretty high up. In the area Wufei's ears would have been there were flaps resembling bat wings. They opened upward, not to the sides as might be expected as he saw Duo running. Near transparent flaps of skin dropped over Wufei's eyes and disappeared again within a split second. A thick forked tongue whipped out of his snake like muzzle as he followed the retreating boy. Debris made by the dragging of his spines through the ceiling marked his path. Annoyed by this, Wufei dropped to all fours and resumed chasing Duo. '__You're mine__, human.'_

          Heero and Trowa raised their guns instantly as Duo burst through the door. He slammed it behind him and leaned against it, panting. Upon recognizing Duo the two soldiers lowered their weapons.

          "Where's Wufei?" Heero demanded.

          "He's uh...he's coming…" Duo gasped.

          "Alright, let's get ready." A loud roar rumbled through the hallway. Duo shook his head at Heero.

          "Nothing can get us ready for this." He went flying as Wufei crashed right through the wall.

          "_And now it's time to die!!"_

*So it's Yuy, not Yui, big deal you know what I mean. I'm not reposting everything for _that. Okay Jefcat, the anti ff.net is something I didn't start, someone else started it. It's not a campaign to shut down the site or anything like that. All it is is a group of people starting an new fan fiction site which they hope will provide better services. If it bothers you __that much, I'll take it off. *_


	12. Release

To the person who screamed no to romance in their review I would like to say that as always, this is a non-yaoi fic. There is no romance. There are only scenes which I said that people who wanted to see them as romance could think of them as romance. I like to be open to all readers and to write stories that anyone can enjoy. Thank you. And also, the anti ff.net is sort of a joke some one started, a dare if you will. Nevermind that, it's nothing to be concerned about, no one is threatening this site to my knowledge. ^___^

Virus

Continued

12. Release

          Trowa and Heero dove off to the sides to avoid flying debris. Duo slammed against the far wall and slid to the floor, in between states of consciousness. Worming his way in, Wufei scanned the room for his first victim. His now fully reptilian eyes came to rest on Quatre, tied to a rolling chair, trapped, helpless – easy prey. He made straight for the delirious boy, his massive bulk making the floor tremble as he went. Trowa saw where he was heading and fired a couple shots into his back. But Wufei continued on, unfazed by the wounds. Growing desperate, Trowa looked around for something, anything that he could use to stop Wufei. The light switch caught his eye. The lights in the room were off. All he had to do was turn them on. For that moment, he didn't think about what would happen to Wufei once he was caught in light. He simply acted on impulse, driven by both fear and anger. Rolling to the side he sprang up and made a mad dash for the switch. Wufei sensed the movement; his tail lashed out quickly, sweeping Trowa's feet out from under him. He fell forward, time crawling agonizingly slow as he watched his fingers come closer and realized he was going to fall short. Turning his head to the right he could see the tail coming at him again, moving almost as if something was holding it back. But it was going to hit him from underneath. Maybe he could use that to his advantage. Stretching as far out as he could he waited for the tail to hit and it did, stunning him more than he had anticipated. His hand went limp almost instantaneously but as he was swept up into the air he felt the switch under his fingers. He heard a very distinct click and knew he had succeeded. But he was not awake long enough to fully appreciate it. Already stunned, he barely felt the wall as he slammed into it. The momentum caused him to bounce off and fall face forward on the floor. But as consciousness rapidly left him, his eyes transmitted one last image to his mind, an image that to him was the best thing he'd seen in days – light.

          Wufei roared in both pain and anger as the light swamped him, blinding him, hurting him. He stumbled in unfocused furor and fell onto his side. Heero stood and took aim with his gun as Wufei started to twitch and transform again. Realizing that he was going back into his "human" form, he snatched the bottle of brandy from its place on a desk which fortunately had not been disturbed. He dove on Wufei as soon as he was completely transformed, ignoring the fact that he was almost completely naked and pinned him to the floor by his throat. Opening the bottle of brandy with his teeth, he squeezed Wufei harder so that he would open his mouth. As soon as both Wufei's mouth and the bottle were open, he poured the copper colored liquid down Wufei's throat. He had forced him to drink nearly half the bottle before he saw any results. Wufei started to gag, his stomach muscles contracting violently.

          "Get – out." Heero growled. In an explosion of slime and blood the alien organism that had infected Wufei came out of his body through his mouth and latched onto the ceiling. Duo, who had been watching the whole thing, was vaguely reminded of an ancient movie in which an alien exploded from a man's chest. Wufei stared open mouthed up at the creature who had stolen his humanity. No thoughts would register in his mind. Only one word echoed through his head – released. He had been freed, he had been unchained…he had been released. Unable to take the light the creature moved away but fell to the floor before it could go very far. Heero poured the remainder of the brandy on it and watched as it shriveled and dried and turned to dust. He sat back and wiped his brow. For all that they had gone through…if they had only given Wufei a drink they could have saved themselves all this trouble. It seemed so ridiculous. How simple the solution had been, how easy it had been to kill the beast…how many people had died while they endeavored to concoct some intricate and complicated vaccine…all that, and all they had to do from the very start was do something as simple as give Wufei a glass of wine. A small chuckle to his right attracted his attention. Duo was starting to laugh.

          "That was some experience, huh? Whew, we went through so much trying to get that thing out…seems kinda funny that all he needed was a good stiff drink." After saying this, the braided boy broke into all out laughter. Heero stared at Duo in disbelief; even after going through so much he could still make jokes. It was amazing. He looked in another direction as a small moan reached his ears. Quatre was slumped over yet again, but this time he seemed to be in pain. Seeing that brought him back to himself and he remembered that he needed to find the antibiotics for Quatre. He stood to head back to the cold storage area but he laid eyes on Wufei, unmoving on the floor. Something else he had forgotten; he needed to tie Wufei up in the room they had set up for that specific purpose. Employing the help of Duo, he managed to get Wufei into the hospital bed and tie his arms and feet with steel wire rope. After they were finished Duo pointed at Wufei's face.

          "Hey, what's that stuff?" he asked, indicating a dark trail of liquid running from Wufei's nostril down his lips. Heero examined it briefly.

          "Blood…" he said after a moment. "Come on, we need to help Trowa and Quatre." They left Wufei in the darkened hospital room to go help their comrades. A faint beep sounded from a digital clock as it registered midnight. '_I am free...' Wufei thought. '__I have been…released…'_

***

          Once Wufei was secured, Trowa was left to watch both him and Quatre while Duo and Heero retrieved Dr. J. Fortunately for them, the slime Wufei had used to hold Dr. J wasn't numbing as the slime he had used on Trowa and Heero had been. After a few hours Dr. J was well enough to help hook Wufei to some IV's so he wouldn't go into withdrawal. They kept the room well lit, having discovered that light did no physical damage to Wufei and he'd only been afraid of it because the organism had programmed him to be. As long as the room was lit, Wufei couldn't transform again so they made sure that all the lights were on. As soon as he was able, Dr. J made preparations to perform the blood transfusion. He carried out the procedure with ease and it seemed that everything would be fine. Wufei was now on the track to recovery and the world was safe once again. Heero stood at his post outside the observation room and watched as Duo fed Wufei. He had never agreed with letting Duo have that job but he and Quatre seemed to be the only people who _could get Wufei to eat. Dr. J walked up next to him._

          "Duo told me what happened." he said. Heero showed no sign of acknowledgement but Dr. J knew he was listening. "So you saved the human race. I suppose you feel good about that. But you have nothing to feel good about. You hesitated. You let fear get in the way of action, thinking. Perhaps you are due for some re training. I don't have any time nor any use for cry babies and scaredy cats Heero, you know that." With that Dr. J left to attend to other matters. Heero only watched as the last of the raw steak disappeared down Wufei's throat. A very small, very miniscule part of him wished it was Dr. J and not a steak…

***

          Days passed and they tested Wufei's blood often to see if his old DNA was taking its rightful place and saw, much to their satisfaction, that it was. They were able to collect a venom sample from Wufei's fangs and create a vaccine to cure Quatre and he made a full recovery. Everything was going according to plan – or so it seemed. Everyday the dosage of adrenaline and dopamine lessened, giving the effect of Wufei being weaned off of the stimulants. It was hoped that once the two substances were at a normal level Wufei would be able to think as he once did. Finally it was at only twice the normal level and Wufei seemed to be able to make rational decisions. Duo walked into the room, a cheery smile on his face.

          "It's time for breakfast, Wuffers!" He set down the tray of steaks and turned to look at Wufei who had been strapped to the same bed for weeks. He expected the same thing he always received when it was his turn to feed Wufei – a glare and a growl and occasionally a good cussing out. But as he turned all he saw was Wufei's back.

          "Wu-man? You okay?" He walked around to the other side of the bed and looked into Wufei's darkening eyes. Wufei just stared straight ahead and gave no response. Duo waved his hand in front of Wufei's face. Still he received no response. He turned to the mirror.

          "Heero, something's wrong with Wufei." he called. Heero examined the data output of Wufei's brain but everything looked normal. Dr. J doubled checked the readings just to be sure. They couldn't figure out what was going on. Upon hearing this, Quatre walked into Wufei's room and pushed past Duo. He picked up a steak from the food tray and held it up to Wufei's mouth. Wufei only closed his eyes and moved his head away. Quatre replaced the meat and after a moment he asked,

          "Dr. J, is it possible that Wufei is depressed?" Dr. J paused to ponder the question.

          "Well, even though we have been keeping his dopamine levels elevated, I suppose it is quite possible for him to be depressed. He has good reason to be distraught, after all. This experience is a good deal for _anyone to take in. He just found out that aliens really do exist; shocking to the best of us I would say. His body was invaded and controlled by another creature, so he probably feels violated. Then there is the realization that for a moment in time he was neither physically nor mentally human. Let us not forget all the innocent people he killed __and ate. If he __is depressed, I can understand why. No person should have to go through what he's been through." While Dr. J was speaking no one noticed that Wufei's pale fingers wrapped around the cord running from the IV machine to his arm._

          Afterwards it was the same everyday. Wufei refused to eat or speak and most of the time even refused to move. But it hadn't been three days later that they became positive he was depressed. It was Quatre's turn to feed him and he was in the room with a tray of food trying to do so.

          "Come on Wufei," he was saying. "You need to eat." He smiled triumphantly as Wufei's mouth opened. Only looking away briefly to pick up the food, he turned back just in time to see Wufei's eyes roll back in his head and then the seizure began. Before he was pushed out of the way he saw Wufei's hand clenched tight around the IV cord. He knew then that Wufei had put himself into withdrawal. He had been trying to kill himself. Of course he had to be pumped full of drugs to stabilize his body and from then on they watched him like a hawk to make sure he didn't try anything like that again. Eventually they were forced to give him an IV for food; he still would not eat. Quatre became increasingly worried. The way he and Wufei had seemed connected had been incredible to him. He had never known Wufei had emotions like the ones he'd felt but at the same time it had been horrifying because the hatred had started to envelope him as well. But now he could sense nothing from the boy. He couldn't feel pain or happiness in Wufei. There was just an empty void, a black hole where Wufei used to be. He never showed any kind of emotion anymore. He just laid there on the bed with his back to the observation mirror. There was never an expression on his face. It just looked blank and empty all the time. They could only tell he wasn't brain dead from the scanners. And as hard as they tried to prevent him from harming himself they just couldn't seem to do so. Another day Duo was trying once again to get Wufei to eat. Being very unfruitful in his endeavors, he settled for just talking to the Chinese boy.

          "You know eventually you're gonna be back to normal. Then you can go back to trying to beat me up. And you can go back to piloting your gundam! It's all fixed up now." He paused a moment to shoot a grin in Wufei's direction. Unfazed by the fact that Wufei had buried his head under his pillows he continued to ramble on. It was not till minutes later when a long shrill tone echoed through his ears that he realized what had happened. He was pushed out of the way so that the pillows Wufei had used to smother himself with could be removed and oxygen put back into his lungs. Following this incident Wufei was allowed only one pillow and a very thin and light one at that. The others simply could not understand why he constantly tried to end his life. Only he knew the reasons for craving death. The voice, low and hateful, filling his mind, replacing his thoughts…it was what told him to end his pathetic, meaningless life.

          "_Look at you." it would hiss. "__You're worthless. You're pitiful. Why are you still alive? All you're doing is wasting air. You can't even kill yourself." Wufei used to argue with the voice mentally but now he no longer wasted the effort. To him there was no point in arguing; clearly the voice was right. He should be ashamed of what he had let happen. How weak he had been to let his body and mind be taken over. Disgraceful the way he had treated his allies, disgusting the way he had treated innocent people. He could never show his face anywhere ever again. He had to die. Eventually another idea came to him. It had been Quatre who'd discovered this one. _

          Everything seemed to be going according to schedule. He stood next to Heero and watched Wufei through the one way window that the distraught boy never looked into. Dr. J pointed out something on one of the monitors. A massive drop in blood pressure had occurred in Wufei's body as well as other sharp decreases. Just standing there Quatre may have never noticed but Dr. J's observation made him look harder. Once he did sharpen his gaze he saw the blood staining the sheets that covered the pale, thin body. Wufei hadn't even tried to cover it up but it was almost invisible anyway as the stains fell where many creases and shadows were. And so it was found that Wufei had cut his wrists on the metal hand restraints. Much to their dismay and discomfort they were forced to use a softer type of restraint. It was hoped that Wufei would not be able to break free due to his atrophied muscles. But only a few days later an alarm went off, alerting them to some problem with Wufei. Those of the group that had been away now rushed back to the room expecting an answer but finding only more questions. The restraints were broken, the window was open and Wufei was gone.

*Sorry that this chapter is so short. But the next chapter will be the last one anyway. Think that Wufei shouldn't be so depressed? Well wouldn't you be feeling a little upset if that happened to you? Ah, you have to think about those things. And no I don't own Aliens™ but I really wish I did.*


	13. Fine China

Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone! I really appreciate it. ^___^

Virus

Continued

13. Fine China

          Quatre was at the window immediately. Almost insane with fear he searched frantically for any signs of the escaped boy. As he spotted him on the ledge of the building he started to scramble out the window but was held back so a rope could be tied around his waist. Dr. J stopped him once again for a brief word of advice.  
          "Remember all that he has been through and try not to mention any of it. And don't forget that he is still on the medication so he probably has no idea what he's doing. Don't say anything to upset him." Quatre nodded then, feeling a bit calmer than before, climbed out onto the ledge and edged toward Wufei. Wufei didn't even glance over at the blonde trying to keep him from ending his life. His loose hair waved silkily in the wind as he stared at the empty street four floors below.

          "Wufei, give me your hand." Quatre said. He reached for the boy but received no response. "Listen to me Wufei; you don't want to do this. It's not worth it. You don't have to do this." Hesitantly he moved still closer, trying to be within reach should Wufei actually jump. Much to his surprise Wufei spoke for the first time in weeks.

          "Where I come from, they tell a story." Quatre stopped to listen. "It tells how life is a climb up a tall mountain. Your life ends when you reach the peak. If you haven't learned anything or gained any experience during your climb you must jump back down to the bottom, which represents death, and you must climb it again. But if you _have gained both wisdom and experience, when you jump you won't die, you'll be carried away on the Spirit Winds." Wufei turned his head slowly to glance at Quatre. As always there was no emotion on his face, no light in his eyes. "I have reached the peak of my mountain." Quatre shook his head._

          "Wufei, this isn't some legend! If you jump off of this ledge, you _will die!" Unfazed by the words Wufei turned to look out over the colony. His eyes closed as he whispered,_

          "I am coming for you, Nataku." Quatre's mind froze as he watched Wufei push off.

          "Wufei, no!!" He dove after the Chinese boy, determined to save him. The plain gray sweats they had dressed Wufei in fluttered in the wind as he fell. Sound all but disappeared. Quatre could hear only the sweats fluttering from Wufei's momentum. It sounded almost like the flapping of a hundred wings, perhaps the wings of doves. He cried out once more as a myriad of the snow-white birds flew up at him from under the falling Wufei. His voice was swallowed into nothingness. Everything around him dissolved. The ground was rushing up impossibly fast, ready to kill them both. He reached, stretched, not ready to give up, not willing to let go, determined, afraid…so many emotions all in a single second, more than his brain could handle. And yet through the flurry of motion and emotion he could see it all clearly. He winced and pulled back, shrank back as the blood hit him. It was ice cold. It hit him again and again, staining his face, his shirt and his hands. The dark liquid covered his hands and he was only able to see it for a brief moment before it was in his eyes, blinding him. The white feathers seemed to slice at his flesh as the birds passed. Their wings beat him mercilessly. He couldn't see they swarmed around him so thickly but he couldn't push them away; he had to catch him. He had to catch Wufei. But each time he missed. Each and every time no matter what he did Wufei always escaped his grasp. There was never any sound as Wufei hit, only a heavy spray of deep crimson, blood, blood on his hands. Wufei's blood was on _his hands. He was responsible. He had let Wufei die. He saw it, he watched it, he witnessed it. The now stained feathers fell and stuck to his hands, his bloody hands, the hands that had let Wufei slip by, the hands that – The rope yanked back on him sharply, bringing him back to his senses. Shaking violently he ventured a glance downward. He held an unconscious Wufei in his arms. The two of them swung back and forth in the air for a moment, suspended by the rope. Quatre's nerves released themselves so quickly when he let out a strained laugh that he almost let go of Wufei. He had succeeded. Wufei would live. It was almost unbelievable how his death had played over and over in his mind…it had been so vivid, so real…but at the same time it hadn't been real. He wondered if for a brief moment he had lost his mind. Below Wufei Quatre's knuckles were turning white from the way his hands were clutching each other, clinging to each other like a person clinging to life. And he __was clinging to life. He was clinging to Wufei's life._

          Quatre had to be put to bed after that incident. His body had been so drained from the experience that he couldn't even stand. Laying there, staring up at the painfully white ceiling, he reminisced on his own recovery time, during which he had still been oddly connected to Wufei. He had been so delirious. Constantly he had hallucinated, believing that everything he was seeing was real, was truly happening. His sisters and his father had come to visit him, Wufei had gotten up and yelled at him…he had even gotten up himself a few times. Of course, this had all happened in his mind. But more interesting to him was that he also saw things from Wufei's memory. More than anything else he was haunted by a vision of a young girl surrounded in a white light. No, it was more like the light was coming from inside her. In a void filled with darkness, the darkness of death, she had been a guiding light, a rock to cling to when depression and hate threatened to consume him. Quatre shook his head unconsciously. He had placed himself where Wufei was once again. At first it had been nearly impossible to distinguish what was in his mind and what came from Wufei's. Continuously he had confused the other boy's experiences and feelings with his own. He wondered if that would ever go away. Shuffling to his right brought him back from his thoughts. He turned to look at Wufei who had rolled over.

          "Good morning." he called. His friendly greeting was answered with a snort. A smile crossed his face; Wufei was becoming more and more like himself everyday.

***

          More time passed and the battle between the Earth and the colonies waged on. After much therapy, both physical and mental Wufei was doing just fine. Dr. J's lab was repaired and cleaned up and back in service in no time. The old scientist himself was currently busy with chemical research. Holding a fresh test tube of some indiscernible liquid with his mechanical arm he filled a medicine dropper with the other. Behind him a woman sat at a computer recording every step of this delicate procedure. She pondered the story he had just finished telling her. Surely all of that couldn't be true. It just was not believable. Finally she could take it no longer. She just had to ask a question.

          "So all it took was a little bit of alcohol?" she blurted. Dr. J nodded as he dropped a bit of the chemical in the medicine dropper into the test tube.

          "Yes that was all it took to get it out." The words reverberated in the woman's mind.

          "That's quite a story Dr. J, I don't see how you'll get anyone to believe it." Dr. J watched closely as bubbles began to form in the test tube.

          "Frankly I don't _care who believes it." There was silence for a moment. Then the woman spoke once more._

          "How would you know about all the things that happened while you were…restrained?"

          "That's very simple, I had Heero write a full report of the entire event." Feeling a bit defeated the woman turned her attention back to the monitor. She chuckled lightly.

          "Knowing you, you probably checked his blood everyday to see if the alien DNA possibly integrated itself into his own DNA. Poor Dr. J, always searching for a way to make his soldiers even more perfect and never succeeding..." As she sat there laughing to herself she noticed that Dr. J had stopped moving altogether. Her smile vanished almost immediately.

          "Dr. J, is everything alright?" she called. He remained silent. "Dr. J… you _did check his DNA for that didn't you? Dr. J?" Glass and chemicals mixed on the floor as Dr. J's grip on the test tube relaxed._

          "No…" His voice was barely above a whisper. "I didn't…"

          Wufei stood solemnly on small ridge protruding from the weather carven landscape. Here there was a break in the trees that hid their gundams and the safe house so efficiently. He stared at the pale sky just tasting the first rays of the sun as he thought and meditated. It had been so long since he had been alone, since he had heard nothing but quiet… The other pilots insisted upon being at his side constantly, especially Quatre. He supposed they were just afraid he would try to kill himself again or try to hurt others. It was highly unlikely since he had not tried to do either since the last suicide attempt at Dr. J's laboratory. His lip pulled back unconsciously as he detected the presence of the fourth pilot. The young blonde was obviously not trying to sneak up on him but rather was trying not to disturb him. But either way it made little difference; his mere being there was enough to annoy the already aggravated Chinese boy. Quatre realized that Wufei knew he was there and stepped forward, his feet snapping the fragile plant life on the ground.

          "The sunrise is going to be beautiful this morning…" he said. He turned to look at Wufei. Wufei only stared straight forward, never once moving from the position he had been in beforehand. "I didn't really expect to find you up here." Quatre continued. "You can get a great view of the land from here…"

          "What do you want, Quatre?" The lack of bitterness or anger in Wufei's voice surprised him greatly. He floundered a moment, trying to decide on the proper comment. Finally his voice found words.

          "I guess I just wanted to know if you'll be alright. You've gone through a very traumatizing experience…I want to know if you'll ever be able to get past it." An eerie silence followed. Then with a sigh Wufei said,

          "I am not fully sure what happened to me. I had a good deal of hallucinations. Everything was confusing. I don't even remember trying to kill myself." Quatre's eyes widened. He was unaccustomed to this  kind of openness from Wufei. "Of course," he continued. "I will never fully be able to get over that. But I will not let it stop me from reaching my goals in life. Life is not a straight, flat road. There will always be unexpected turns and obstacles. If I had stopped and given up at all the barriers life has given me I would never have moved an inch. That event, like many others, is now in the past. I will learn from it and let it make me stronger. And that is _all I will do." During his brief monologue the sun had moved further into the sky. For reasons unknown to the other pilots Wufei had still been avoiding sunlight._

          "The sun's almost up." Quatre noted. "Let's go back to the safe house."  Wufei shook his head.

          "Go ahead without me. I'll be there in a while." Quatre's aqua colored eyes widened once again. But brushing it off as nothing more than progress he agreed and turned to head back to the tiny wooden shack they were staying in for shelter. Wufei's eyes, now back to their original color, took in the sun's first rays. A small, mysterious smile crossed his face as a thick, dark substance ran down from his nostril…

_It's going to be a bright_

_Bright_

_Sun-shiny day  
  
_

*Cut and print! WOOT!! Another fic completed!! Yay for me. Yeah, I know it was short. I'm sorry. I did the best I could! Oh well. Be on the look out for my next Gundam Wing fic "Absolute Zero" and my Yu-Yu Hakusho fic, unnamed as of yet. ^___^* 


End file.
